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Britain to free LAX bomb suspect Sebastian Rotella The accused Al Qaeda figure, identified only by the alias Abu Doha, is to be released within days, in part because of a lack of hard evidence for his prosecution. British authorities will soon free an accused Algerian leader of Al Qaeda who had been charged as the mastermind of a foiled plot to bomb Los Angeles International Airport in 1999, British officials say. The recent court order to release the 45-year-old Algerian on bail after seven years in custody comes after authorities freed Abu Qatada, a Jordanian cleric who allegedly was Al Qaeda's top ideologue in Europe.
(Article continues below) British officials refer to the accused Algerian leader as "U" because of a court order to refrain from naming him publicly. American prosecutors identified him in a U.S. indictment in 2001 under an alias, Abu Doha, because his real name remains unknown. As with Abu Qatada, strict bail conditions will limit the Algerian's movements and contacts and allow police to monitor him closely, officials said. Nonetheless, the failure to keep the two men behind bars reveals persistent obstacles to fighting Al Qaeda in the Western justice system, anti-terrorism officials and experts say. The case of the Algerian is alarming, officials and experts say, because investigations by European, U.S. and North African security forces concluded that he was a leader of Al Qaeda plots in the West before the Sept. 11 attacks. His release results from a lack of hard evidence that can be used for prosecution, and from dogged resistance by British judges to deporting suspects to countries with questionable human rights records.
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