LONDON, June 23 (UPI) -- A Dutchman suspected of being involved in the murder of Dutch film-maker Theo Van Gogh has been arrested in London.
Dutch police have been looking for Rachid Belkacem for eight months -- until he was discovered and arrested in East London Wednesday, Britain's Channel Four News reported Thursday. Belkacem is also accused of possessing weapons and recruiting for an armed jihad.
The 32-year-old Moroccan is said to have convictions for smuggling people across Europe. He is suspected to being involved in raising a private army of jihadists in The Netherlands.
He disappeared on the day Van Gogh was shot and stabbed in Amsterdam while cycling to work. The film-maker is believed to have been murdered because of his controversial work criticizing Islam.
Counter-terrorism suspects fear that the murder might be the first of a new kind of terror attack -- one targeted at individuals.
A European official recently told United Press International that British police had arrested a suspected Islamic extremist with materials "indicating that he was planning an attack on a member of the armed forces who had received publicity as a result of the work he'd been doing (with coalition forces) in Iraq."
Belkacem was arrested as he was making a call from a phone box, Channel Four News said.
On Thursday, Belkacem was brought to Bow Street Magistrates Court where the Dutch authorities formally requested his extradition accusing him of "associating with a known terrorist group in the Netherlands called the 'Hofstad Group' ...suspected of being responsible for the murder of Theo Van Gogh, a Dutch TV and film producer," Channel Four News said.
