October 3, 2002	Thursday	Rajab 25, 1423

PARIS, Oct 2: French Justice Minister Dominique Perben says he has notified US Attorney General John Ashcroft of his “extreme concern” over the arrest of a French citizen, Michael Phillips, who scribbled a message, considered as anti-American by US Justice authorities, on the wall of an airline washroom.

Mr Perben says he is “very preoccupied” over the arrest of Mr Phillips, an airline steward, because the US Justice department is charging him with “the use of an arm of massive destruction to destroy the United States.”

Mr Phillips, who had notified the commander of the flight on which he was travelling of a message left on a washroom wall, which read: “Bin Laden is the best. Americans should die. There is a bomb on board.”

The French Justice Minister’s decision to intervene in the case marks apparently the French government has chosen to intervene openly in a case involving a French citizen charged with a crime pertaining to terrorism.