LONDON: British police have released four men arrested under terrorism laws by detectives investigating a homemade bomb explosion in a Liverpool taxi, as they work to understand the motives of the suspected bomber, who died in the blast.
Police have named the bomber as 32-year-old Emad Al Swealmeen, who came to Britain as an asylum-seeker several years ago and had converted to Christianity in 2017.
Al Swealmeen was killed and a taxi driver injured when a blast ripped through the vehicle as it pulled up outside Liverpool Women’s Hospital on Sunday morning.
Police have called the blast a terrorist act, but say they are still working to determine the motive.
Four men in their 20s who had been detained under the Terrorism Act were released late Monday. Russ Jackson, the head of counterterrorism policing for northwest England, said that “following interviews with the arrested men, we are satisfied with the accounts they have provided and they have been released from police custody.”
Jackson said that police now had “a much greater understanding of the component parts of the device, how they were obtained and how the parts are likely to have been assembled.” But he said “there is a considerable way to go to understand how this incident was planned, prepared for and how it happened.”
Britain’s official threat level was raised from substantial to severe — meaning an attack is highly likely — following the blast, the UK’s second fatal incident in a month. Conservative lawmaker David Amess was stabbed to death in October in what police said was an act of terrorism.
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UK police release 4 men held over Liverpool taxi bombing
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UK police release 4 men held over Liverpool taxi bombing
- Four men in their 20s who had been detained under the Terrorism Act were released late Monday
Myanmar expels East Timor envoy after rights group complaint against junta
- Myanmar has been in turmoil since 2021, when the military ousted the elected government led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi
Myanmar has ordered the head of East Timor’s diplomatic mission to leave the country within seven days, state media quoted the foreign ministry as saying on Monday, in an escalating row over a criminal complaint filed by a rights group against Myanmar’s armed forces.
Myanmar has been in turmoil since 2021, when the military ousted the elected government led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, sparking a wave of anti-junta protests that have morphed into a nationwide civil war.
Myanmar’s Chin state Human Rights Organization (CHRO) last month filed a complaint with the justice department of East Timor, also known as Timor-Leste, alleging that the Myanmar junta had carried out war crimes and crimes against humanity since the 2021 coup.
In January, CHRO officials also met East Timor President Jose Ramos-Horta, who last year led the tiny Catholic nation’s accession into the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), of which Myanmar is also a member.
CHRO filed the complaint in East Timor because it was seeking an ASEAN member with an independent judiciary as well as a country that would be sympathetic to the suffering of Chin State’s majority Christian population, the group’s Executive Director Salai Za Uk said.
“Such unconstructive engagement by a Head of State of one ASEAN Member State with an unlawful organization opposing another ASEAN Member State is totally unacceptable,” the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar quoted the foreign ministry as saying.
A spokesman for the Myanmar junta did not respond to calls seeking comment.
In early February, CHRO said East Timor’s judicial authorities had opened legal proceedings against the Myanmar junta, including its chief Min Aung Hlaing, following the complaint filed by the rights group.
Myanmar’s foreign ministry said East Timor’s acceptance of the case and the country’s appointment of a prosecutor to look into it resulted in “setting an unprecedented practice, negative interpretation and escalation of (public) resentments.”
East Timor’s embassy in Myanmar did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent via email.
The diplomatic spat comes as the Myanmar military faces international scrutiny for its role in an alleged genocide against the minority Muslim Rohingya in a case being heard at the International Court of Justice.
Myanmar has denied the charge.
Myanmar has been in turmoil since 2021, when the military ousted the elected government led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, sparking a wave of anti-junta protests that have morphed into a nationwide civil war.
Myanmar’s Chin state Human Rights Organization (CHRO) last month filed a complaint with the justice department of East Timor, also known as Timor-Leste, alleging that the Myanmar junta had carried out war crimes and crimes against humanity since the 2021 coup.
In January, CHRO officials also met East Timor President Jose Ramos-Horta, who last year led the tiny Catholic nation’s accession into the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), of which Myanmar is also a member.
CHRO filed the complaint in East Timor because it was seeking an ASEAN member with an independent judiciary as well as a country that would be sympathetic to the suffering of Chin State’s majority Christian population, the group’s Executive Director Salai Za Uk said.
“Such unconstructive engagement by a Head of State of one ASEAN Member State with an unlawful organization opposing another ASEAN Member State is totally unacceptable,” the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar quoted the foreign ministry as saying.
A spokesman for the Myanmar junta did not respond to calls seeking comment.
In early February, CHRO said East Timor’s judicial authorities had opened legal proceedings against the Myanmar junta, including its chief Min Aung Hlaing, following the complaint filed by the rights group.
Myanmar’s foreign ministry said East Timor’s acceptance of the case and the country’s appointment of a prosecutor to look into it resulted in “setting an unprecedented practice, negative interpretation and escalation of (public) resentments.”
East Timor’s embassy in Myanmar did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent via email.
The diplomatic spat comes as the Myanmar military faces international scrutiny for its role in an alleged genocide against the minority Muslim Rohingya in a case being heard at the International Court of Justice.
Myanmar has denied the charge.
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