Four men apprehended in Kenya last week allegedly en route to a jihadist training camp in Somalia were arrested in Belgium on a Dutch warrant on Thursday, prosecutors in The Hague said.
In a statement, the Dutch national prosecuting authority said the four -- three Dutch citizens and a Moroccan with Dutch residency status, and all aged 21 -- were arrested at Brussels airport "after being expelled from Kenya".
They are "suspected of participation in a terrorist organisation," it said, after they were stopped last Friday in Kenya from where they were allegedly "on their way to a jihadist training camp in Somalia."
It was not immediately known why Kenyan authorities had not sent the four directly to the Netherlands. One of the three Dutchmen is of Somali origin and the other two of Moroccan origin.
The Netherlands, where police have opened an investigation into "possible involvement in terrorism," is seeking the four men's extradition from Belgium.
The prosecutors' statement said investigators searched two homes linked to the men in The Hague on Thursday morning and seized "a large number of documents," the nature of which was not divulged.
One among the group, it added, was held in Azerbaijan in November 2005 on suspicion of planning to take part in a jihad with two others. It was unclear what happened to him after he was sent to the Netherlands at the time.
The radical Al-Qaeda-inspired Shebab Islamists in Somalia have been battling the government and have admitted to receiving backing from foreign fighters in their bid to topple President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed.
Kenya, which shares a long border with the lawless Horn of Africa country, is wary of a possible attack on its soil and has been on the alert.
Source: AFP
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