Terror Suspect Again Denied Bail Request

An Algerian pilot accused of helping train the Sept. 11 hijackers who crashed a plane into the Pentagon was denied a bail hearing Friday.

It was the second time that Lotfi Raissi was denied a bail request. Raissi has been indicted by a federal grand jury in Arizona on charges of falsifying applications for a pilot’s license and other documents.

“There have not been enough changes in the evidence to alter the High Court decision that Raissi had some contact with others involved in the Sept. 11 terrorist conspiracy,” said Judge Timothy Workman, presiding at Belmarsh Magistrates Court in southeastern London.

Raissi’s next court appearance was set for Jan. 11.

Prosecutors have said Raissi trained the suicide hijackers who crashed American Airlines Flight 77 into the Pentagon.

Defense lawyer Campasa Lloyd-Jacob argued that prosecutors had presented no evidence linking Raissi to Hani Hanjour, believed to have piloted the plane into the Pentagon.

“To wave the extremely emotive flag of terrorism without enough evidence to establish links is an insubstantial smear,” Lloyd-Jacob said.

Raissi sat at the back of the court, guarded by three officers. He was not handcuffed or shackled.

Raissi, who denies any involvement in terrorism, was arrested at his home near Heathrow airport on Sept. 21. U.S. authorities have asked for his extradition.

In other developments Friday, the U.S. Embassy in Vienna said it had sealed off its mail room and returned an anthrax-tainted diplomatic mail bag to the United States for testing and decontamination.

Police stepped up security at the U.S. Embassy in The Hague and deployed an armored personnel carrier to protect the building. Police would not say whether the measure was in response to a specific threat or a general heightening of security after the Sept. 11 attacks.