THE HAGUE, 18/06/03 - The Immigration and Naturalization Service (IND) has extradited a supposed Muslim extremist to Algeria. He is one of the twelve men cleared earlier this month of supporting the Jihad.

On 5 June, Rotterdam district court acquitted all twelve suspected Muslims of the charge of recruiting, training and supporting militants for the Jihad, the armed conflict aimed at the enemies of Islam. Following this judgement, seven of the twelve were directly retaken into custody for illegal residence in the Netherlands. "The extradited Algerian is the first of the group that had to leave the country while the other six are still awaiting their extradition", the IND reported yesterday.

During the court case, the Public Prosecutor (OM) argued that several suspects were about to be deployed by Al-Qaeda and the Taliban. The court, however, considered the evidence as insufficient and moreover as unlawful, since the domestic intelligence service (AIVD) was not prepared to say how it had obtained it. Justice Minister Donner is considering launching special terrorism legislation in order to tackle Muslim extremism.