BRUSSELS, Dec 24: The man suspected of trying to bomb an American Airlines flight over the weekend was carrying a map of Brussels with a cross marked next to the British embassy, a Belgian legal official said on Monday.
The cross had been marked at the crossroads linking Rue de la Loi and Rue D’Arlon, where the British embassy is located, the source in the Brussels prosecutor’s office was quoted as saying by the Belga press agency.
These were the only pieces of information released by the prosecutor’s office after US police passed on details of the case.
The man, who managed to board an American Airlines Boeing 767 on Saturday after having been refused access to the same flight the previous day, was prevented from igniting explosives in his shoes when a hostess smelled a match he was trying to light.
Questioned by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the suspect was carrying a British passport under the name of Richard Colvin Reid, aged 28, which had been issued at the British consulate in Brussels.
French police sources said the passport was genuine and had been given on the basis of a false identity.
He had first showed up at the Paris airport early on Friday, with a round trip ticket for the Caribbean island of Antigua, flying via Miami.
Officials said the man, who had purchased the ticket in Paris, was then “profiled” as per standard procedure by an official of the ICTS company on behalf of American Airlines.
During the profiling, or questioning process, the man said he was of Jamaican origin, and said he had been staying in Belgium, but was evasive about the reasons for his trip.
The suspect told the FBI that his real name was Tarik Raja, born in 1973 in Sri Lanka. He also referred to himself as Abdel Rahim, a name he claimed to have taken after converting to Islam.
He appeared in a Boston federal court on Monday where he was charged with assault and intimidation of the flight crew.
Explosive found: Some 200 grams of pentrite, an explosive often used as a detonator in shells, was found in the shoe of the suspect. The French police, however, said the quantity was not enough to blow up the aircraft.
Quoting US investigators, police officials said the amount of explosive found would have had a blast effect similar to that of many anti-personnel mines.
If it had exploded, the device would have caused a very loud bang and blast effect in the cabin, but would not have caused the aircraft to blow up, police sources said.
However, the effects of the resulting panic, and possible injuries among the passengers, could have been devastating.
The would-be suicide bomber was allowed to get on the plane at Charles de Gaulle airport even though he had not checked in luggage. He carried a British passport issued to Richard Colvin Reid but identified himself to police as Tariq Raja, born in 1973 in Sri Lanka.—AFP
