Off the wire
• Backgrounder: Ten facts about Zika disease  • Cameron plans to tackle racial bias at Britain's elite universities  • Israel's PM blasts French initiative on int'l peace meeting  • NW China province probes arrests of reporters  • Thousands of smuggled turtles seized in Shanghai  • 4th LD: Twin bombings rock Shiite district in Syria capital, 45 killed   • Weather forecast for major Chinese cities, regions -- Jan. 31  • Weather forecast for world cities -- Jan. 31  • Traffic accident kills 16 in Egypt  • 3rd LD: Twin bombings rock Shiite district in Syria capital, 30 killed   
You are here: 　 Home

Two suspected jihadists arrested in northern Greece

Xinhua, January 31, 2016 Adjust font size:

Greek police have arrested two suspected jihadists holding Swedish passports in the northern Greek city of Alexandroupolis near the Turkish border, the Greek national news agency AMNA reported on Sunday.

The two men, a 30-year-old Bosnian and a 20-year-old Yemeni, were apprehended Thursday at the central bus station in the city when policemen discovered knives in their luggage, according to police sources.

They were both charged with possessing illegal weapons and will be brought before a prosecutor in Alexandroupolis on Tuesday, as counterterrorism police seek to trace possible links to terrorist organizations.

The two men refused to provide information on their journey, but Greek authorities in consultation with the Swedish police have discovered that they arrived in Athens by plane earlier last week, traveled by car to northern Greece and intended to cross over to Turkey.

According to police sources, the Bosnian suspect was sentenced in 2005 in Bosnia to 15 years of imprisonment for planning to attack the U.S. embassy in the country on behalf of an al Qaeda-linked group.

He was released in 2011 and sought political asylum in Sweden. Endi