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Armed police have arrested a 37-year-old British man suspected of being an ISIS terrorist at the entrance of the Channel Tunnel to the UK.
This morning a warrant of further detention was authorised for him as detectives continued to quiz him in custody.
He was arrested on Wednesday within the British control zone in Coquelles, France, as part of a pre-planned operation by officers from the MPS Counter Terrorism Command.
But London-based advocacy group CAGE have insisted the man – whose identity is not known – is actually a British aid worker.
And it said he was helping the police with their enquiries, had done nothing wrong and had recently won a battle to keep his British citizenship.
Trucks arrive through a Eurotunnel Channel Tunnel in Coquelles, France, in the zone
Managing director Muhammad Rabbani said: ‘He is a veteran aid worker with a strong track record of international relief work. Without any initial judicial oversight, he was stripped of his citizenship and sent into exile without any regard for due process.
‘We welcome this result with guarded optimism for the hundreds of other British nationals that have all been deprived of their basic right to citizenship using “secret evidence”. This case highlights the extent to which such executive powers are abused.’
A Met police spokesman confirmed the arrest in France, adding: ‘He was arrested on suspicion of preparing for terrorist acts and membership of a proscribed organisation and detained under Police and Criminal Evidence powers.
‘Whilst in police custody, he was subsequently detained under the Terrorism Act 2000.’Â
A female police worker in France has been killed by a knifeman who was then shot dead
Rambouillet is a quiet commune southwest of Paris and is known for its famous chateau
The Met Police refused to comment further on the man’s identity, where he lived before travelling, or the circumstances of the arrest.
Officers managed to make the arrest after receiving intelligence suggesting their suspect would be at that location.Â
Counter-terror authorities have previously raised concerns about the spectre of British nationals attempting to return to the UK after fighting in Syria.
The numbers of Britons who had gone over there have been estimated to have been as high as 1,500 at one point.
This latest arrest comes as France steps up security following an increase in the threat posed by terrorist groups such as ISIS during the current holy Muslim month of Ramadan.
‘Intelligence from Syria has pointed to foreign individuals entering France with the aim of carrying out their deadly missions,’ said a security services source in Paris.
‘There have been some very serious terrorist attacks in France in recent days, and security is being increased to deal with the threat.’
The source said Ramadan was a time that groups such as ISIS and Al-Qaeda ‘regularly exploit for maximum publicity’.
Asked if terrorists were likely to travel through France to get to targets in Britain, the source said: ‘Of course, this is always a strong possibility.’
He said ‘information from the British is made fully available to French colleagues’, and it was likely that shared intelligence would have been used before the latest arrest.
France is widely considered to be an easy entry-point for jihadists from North Africa and the Middle East, who can then get to other European countries and Britain relatively easily.
The French are particularly concerned about potential killers from abroad travelling across European borders to carry out atrocities.
Last Friday, a radicalised Tunisian national stabbed a female police worker to death in Rambouillet, on the outskirts of Paris, before being shot dead himself by officers.
Jamel Gorchene arrived in France in 2009, and lived illegally in the country for a full decade before getting a temporary residence permit last year.
Gorchene originally came from M’saken, the same town in north east Tunisia as Mohammed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, who in 2016 drove a truck on to the promenade in Nice, in the south of France, and killed 86 people.
ISIS videos are known to have radicalised both men, and also Abdoullakh Abouyedovich Anzorov, the Russian immigrant from a Chechen background who beheaded a school teacher in the Paris suburb of Conflans-Sainte-Honorine last October.
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