December 20, 2001	Thursday	Shawwal 4, 1422

LONDON, Dec 19: The British government using the new terror law for the first time on Wednesday arrested at least eight foreign nationals in London, the West Midlands and Luton.

Immigration officers along with police carried out the raids on Wednesday arresting suspects and searching their houses. The detained are expected to be kept in prisons without trial.

It’s not known yet if any of the detainees is of Pakistani origin.

Government sources say the legislative powers will be used against relatively small number of people and one possible suspect could include Abu Qatada, regarded as Osama bin Laden’s “European ambassador”, who was arrested in February but released without any charge.

The 40-year-old Abu Qatada is a Palestinian national from west London and was sentenced to life-imprisonment in Jordan for masterminding bomb attacks in 1994.

Spanish investigators are seeking to question him over his alleged role in the planning of the Sept 11 attacks.

Qatada cannot be extradited to Jordan because there are no extradition links between both the countries.

Meanwhile, three men alleged to have conspired with Osama bin Laden to bomb US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania face extradition to the United States after their last-ditch attempt to block it failed in the highest court, the House of Lords.

Among the three men, one is a Saudi national while two others are Egyptians.

Their lawyers claim that the UK courts enjoy no jurisdiction to extradite them “because of lack of evidence and the fact that the alleged offences were not committed within the geographical territory of the US.”