Last suspects released, no terror link found

The final two out of seven people arrested on Thursday in connection with a terrorist threat in Amsterdam have been released from custody.


In a short statement, the public prosecution department said that no link had been found between terrorism and any of those arrested, who ranged in age from 19 to 64.
According to the Volkskrant, all seven were related.
The investigation began after a telephone call from Brussels on Wednesday night warned that plans were being made to bomb several shops in Amsterdam’s Zuidoost.
Specific
The threat was ‘so specific’ that it was taken extremely seriously. One of the seven arrested was said to be related to one of the Madrid bombing suspects. ‘Everything fitted, which made the threat real,’ a justice ministry spokesman told the paper.
Police searched houses in Amsterdam and Brussels and no explosives were found.
Farid Azarkan of the Moroccans in Holland alliance SMN said he was pleased that there was no threat of a terrorist attack. ‘I am… angry about the information provided by the police and justice ministry. They were very quick in noting ethnicity.’
The seven people arrested are all Dutch nationals with Moroccan roots.
At the beginning of 2008 three men were arrested in connection with an alleged plot to set of a bomb in central Rotterdam during the New Year celebrations. All three were later released and the charges dropped because there was no evidence.

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