Nuclear physicist suspected of leaking data to al Qaeda

A nuclear physicist working on the "large collider" experiment to simulate the Big Bang has been arrested in France on suspicion of advising al Qaeda on possible terrorist targets.

Adlene Hicheur, a 32-year-old French scientist, of Algerian origin, is being held with his younger brother, Zitouni, or Halim, after being trailed, and bugged, by French anti-terrorist police for more than a year.

A judicial source told the newspaper Le Figaro: "This is very high level." The French Interior Minister, Brice Hortefeux, said the investigation "may perhaps show that we have prevented the worst".

Hicheur was arrested alongside his younger brother near Lyons on suspicion of having contacts with al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, or Aqim. He was said to have been suspected of giving advice on possible nuclear targets within France.

Hicheur was one of 7000 working on the Cern project on the Swiss-French border to build a Large Hadron Collider, with the aim of simulating some of the conditions of the Big Bang in an attempt to answer questions about the origins of the universe.

French sources suggested to Le Figaro that he was not planning to threaten the collider itself. Officials at Cern added that the arrested scientist had no access to materials that could be used for terrorism. Cern emphasised that his work on one of the smaller experiments linked to the collider, should not be cause for alarm. "None of our research has potential for military application, and all our results are published openly in the public domain," a statement said. Hicheur had no access to the tunnel itself.

Le Figaro said the French internal security agency hoped the arrests would help European Governments to dismantle an important al Qaeda network. Intelligence sources told the newspaper the scientist had been under surveillance for 18 months after his name came up in the investigation of the so-called "Afghan network" of European terror groups.

Investigators also intercepted internet messages between Hicheur and people identified as being linked to Aqim. The messages concerned possible French nuclear targets. Other judicial sources told Reuters the men were believed to be planning attacks in France but no targets had been identified.

The advanced scientific qualifications of the older brother suggest this was not "just a fantasy" but a real plot, intelligence sources said. Police seized two computers, three hard disks and several USB keys.

Hortefeux said Aqim and other terror groups had recently listed France among possible targets. "We are on permanent alert. We never drop our guard. The risk is permanent."

BROTHERS' CVS

* Adlene Hicheur, 32, was once a research fellow at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Chilton, Oxfordshire. His name is attached to dozens of research papers presented at universities and nuclear research centres all over the world.

* His younger brother Zitouni, or Halim, has a doctorate in physiology and the biomechanics of motion from the Pierre and Marie Curie University, Paris. He is a research fellow at the College de France in Paris, France's most prestigious academic institution.

* The brothers are French-born with devout, hard-working Algerian parents.

- INDEPENDENT