Bern: Switzerland has opened its own investigation into the case of a nuclear physicist France suspected of al Qaeda links, an official said on Sunday.
The French suspect, who worked at the world's largest atom smasher on the Swiss-French border and at a Swiss technology institute, is unspecified in Switzerland's investigation, but it is the same case as the French one, Swiss Federal Prosecutor's Office spokeswoman Walburga Bur said.
She said the investigation was opened at the end of October and is directed at an unknown person or persons on suspicion of supporting a criminal organisation. In line with French and Swiss judicial policy, authorities have not identified him.
Bur, who confirmed a report in the weekly NZZ am Sonntag, refused to say more about the case.
The 32-year-old Frenchman of Algerian origin had been working on the Large Hadron Collider and teaching at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne. He was arrested at his home in Vienne, France, on October 8. Lab officials say he hasn't been at work for most of the year.
The French suspect the scientist of involvement with al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, a North African group that targets Algerian government forces and sometimes attacks foreigners.
French investigating magistrate Christophe Teissier has filed preliminary charges against him for criminal association with a terrorist enterprise.
Bureau Report
First Published: Sunday, November 08, 2009, 23:26