Wednesday October 24, 12:55 AM

Suspected terrorist arrested with bio-suit in Frankfurt: officials

FRANKFURT, Oct 23 (AFP) -

A Turkish student allegedly carrying explosives material and a bio-protection suit is being held in Germany after being arrested as he prepared to board a flight to Iran, authorities said Tuesday.

The 29-year-old man, identified as Harun Aydin, was arrested at Frankfurt airport on Wednesday last week on suspicion of belonging to "an Islamist terrorist organisation planning serious violent attacks," German prosecutors in the western city of Karlsruhe said in a statement.

They said a search of Aydin's luggage turned up a suit for protection against atomic, biological and chemical weapons, combat fatigues, a helmet and materials to build explosives.

A CD-ROM was also discovered that included a training programme for "God's warriors" with detailed instructions for joining the "holy war".

The prosecutors said Aydin was a leading member of an underground Islamic fundamentalist organisation in Germany knwon as the Kaplan group, after its leader, Metin Kaplan.

Metin Kaplan, also known as the "caliph of Cologne", is accused of plotting a holy war against the Turkish government to replace it with a religious regime.

German intelligence suggest the group, believed to have 1,300 supporters in the country, had contacts to Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden in the late 1990s.

Judicial sources said the man was in custody in the western German city of Darmstadt pending further investigation by federal police.

The German federal border police said Aydin was preparing to board an Iran Air flight to Tehran when he was arrested and that his capture had been "relatively quiet". They said he was carrying both a German and a Turkish passport.

A report in Tuesday's Koelner Stadt-Anzeiger newspaper quoted security sources as saying the material found in Aydin's possession was typical of "sleepers" -- terrorists who lead low-profile, law-abiding lives until they are called upon to strike.

Aydin's lawyer, Michale Murat Sertzoes, told the newspaper that his client disputed the charges and said his baggage had been switched with someone else's at the airport.

"He met a fellow Turk whose first name was Mehmet at the airport and asked him because he had excess baggage if they could check in their luggage together," Sertzoes said.

The lawyer said that Aydin told him that the individual pieces of luggage had gotten confused by personnel and that some bags that did not belong to him were marked with his name. He added that the fact Aydin had bought a return ticket showed he planned to return.

He said Aydin was married to Kaplan's sister-in-law but disputed that he had an important role in the Kaplan group.

-- Anonymous, October 23, 2001