MORE than half of the 23 suspects being held over the alleged plot to blow up nine airliners over the Atlantic are expected to be charged with terrorist offences, senior police and Whitehall officials claimed this weekend.

Scotland Yard is reportedly “very buoyant” about the progress of the inquiry, one of the largest counter-terrorism investigations undertaken in Britain.

Officials have said that police have uncovered bomb-making equipment, chemicals, a large sum of cash, at least one gun and “significant” documentation during searches in the past 10 days of 50 properties in London, High Wycombe and Birmingham.

They are also said to be studying what are said by some sources to be “martyrdom videos” recovered from up to six laptop computers. A series of e-mails, some from internet cafes in Reading, are said to have linked some of the suspects.

Fingerprint and DNA evidence is still being analysed. But senior sources claim that the first batch of suspects will be charged with terrorism offences within the next 10 days and more than half of those being held are expected to be charged.

The sources insist that the situation is different from that which emerged within days of the bungled anti-terror raid on two houses in Forest Gate, east London, in June.

Scotland Yard was forced to apologise to two brothers who were arrested when 250 officers took part in an armed raid in which one suspect was accidentally shot and wounded.

Police had been looking for a bomb laced with cyanide but admitted days later that no evidence of any terrorist offences had been found.

Protests among Muslims against the Forest Gate raid have led to widespread scepticism about the most recent arrests and government claims to have foiled a plot comparable to 9/11.

“This is not a Forest Gate. They are very buoyant, very confident that the majority of these people will face terrorism charges,” said one official. “We appreciate that if everybody was released it would prove extremely damaging in terms of relations with the Muslim community.”

The documentation found is said to include evidence from computer files that at least some of the suspects had been looking at flight schedules on the internet with a view to block-booking tickets to America. However, no airline tickets had been recovered, officials said.

Much of the forensic work is focusing on King’s Wood in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. Officials say it is near a “bomb factory” allegedly used by some of the suspects.

It has been reported that police search teams in the investigation, codenamed Operation Overt, have found a suitcase containing components needed to make an explosive device. Police say they expect the teams to be in the woods for six weeks.

Scotland Yard said this weekend that most of the 23 people now in custody can be held until this Wednesday before police have to apply to a judge for a further extension of their detention. They have a total of 28 days to hold the suspects by which time they must either be charged or released.

o Police and the fire brigade were last night called to a house in High Wycombe linked to one of the arrested suspects after reports that a bonfire was burning out of control. According to a fire officer a blanket containing aerosol cans had been put on the fire.

A spokeswoman for Thames Valley police said: “It was a bonfire that got out of hand. It is one of the houses that was searched — there was nothing sinister.” Police continued to search another address close by late into the night.

CLERIC TO BE FREED

An Islamic cleric jailed for preaching hate-filled sermons in which he urged the killing of Jews, Hindus and Americans is to be released from prison within weeks, writes Brendan Bourne.

Tapes of Jamaican-born Sheikh Abdullah el-Faisal’s lectures influenced the July 7 bomber Jermaine Lindsay, and have been circulating within the Muslim community in High Wycombe.

Faisal was jailed for nine years, reduced to seven on appeal, in 2003 for soliciting murder and using insulting words. Judge Peter Beaumont told him he had fanned the flames of hatred.

The cleric will be deported to Jamaica, according to a report in The Observer. Home Office officials would not comment.

Andrew Dismore, MP for Hendon, said though Faisal was eligible his release was premature and he could continue to spread hatred via the internet.

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