A BRITON who managed to slip out of England while under surveillance by security services has been arrested in Morocco by police investigating five suicide bombings that killed 44 people in Casablanca in May.

Perry Jensen, 42, who had been living in Birmingham with one of his two wives until 2001, is suspected of having fought with militant groups in Chechnya and Afghanistan.

British authorities are trying to discover how the Muslim convert managed to leave England and use his British passport to link up with al-Qaeda suspects. He is also said to have travelled to Pakistan and Azerbaijan, but he has denied receiving military and explosives training from al-Qaeda.

A security source in Morocco described Mr Jensen, who also calls himself Abou Yassine, as “a very dangerous man”. He has been charged with “belonging to a criminal gang” which is how the Moroccan authorities have dealt with many of the 700 suspects they have rounded up in connection with the May bombings.

Mr Jensen, who is being held in a prison in Fez, converted to Islam in 1994 and became well known to Scotland Yard and MI5. Security officials in Britain admit, however, that they had no idea of his whereabouts until told of his arrest in Morocco.

British diplomats are trying to discover why the Moroccan authorities did not tell them until this week that Mr Jensen, who was born in London, had been arrested on June 9. He is understood to have told consular staff that he was arrested on “immorality charges” by police investigating his second marriage to a Moroccan woman. His first wife, who has joint Moroccan and British citizenship, is thought to still live in Britain.

Security sources say that after his religious conversion he visited Saudi Arabia where militants encouraged him to travel to Morocco to find a Muslim wife. They claim that he fought with the mujahidin in Chechnya against Russian forces and was trained by al-Qaeda in Afghanistan.

Moroccan police are investigating his connections with Pierre Robert, a Frenchman who claims to have met Osama bin Laden while at a camp on the Afghan border.

Robert, another Muslim convert, who uses the name Abou Abderrahmane, was arrested in Tangiers in June, and was the first foreigner linked to the synchronised attacks in which 12 suicide bombers died.

The Foreign Office said that Moroccan police are questioning a second Briton, Abdel Latif Merroun, 42. He is married to a Briton and lives in Tangiers. Police said that he was being questioned about alleged links with the radical Muslim group Salafiya Jihadi, athough security authorities in Britain said that Mr Merroun was not known to them. British officials have visited both men in prison.

Although contacts between the Moroccan and British security agencies have improved since the September 11 attacks, co-operation between the two countries is not as close as it might be.

Mr Jensen is expected to face trial later this month.

A court in Fez yesterday sentenced 29 members of the Salafiya Jihadi to up to 30 years in prison on charges including belonging to a criminal organisation, kidnap and inciting violence, the official MAP news agency said.

The sentences, not directly linked to the Casablanca explosions, stemmed from a clampdown on militants after the attacks in May on a Spanish restaurant, the Belgium consulate, an hotel, a Jewish community centre and a cemetery. Nineteen other suspects appeared at a separate hearing in Casablanca charged with being part of the May bombings.

The alleged mastermind of the bombings — Abdel Haq Mousabbat — died in police custody in May from what the authorities say was chronic heart and liver disease. There has been no recent intelligence of British extremist Islamic suspects getting involved in terrorist activities in Morocco.

Morocco, a staunch ally of the US, was singled out as a Muslim country “most eligible for liberation” in a tape believed to be from bin Laden. It has long been regarded as a haven for Islamic extremists.

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