2 Questioned in Amsterdam about 'suspicious' luggage
Dutch investigators on Tuesday questioned two men arrested at Amsterdam's airport after U.S. authorities found suspicious items in their checked luggage, including a cell phone taped to a Pepto-Bismol bottle and a knife and box cutter.
The pair were arrested Monday morning at Schiphol Airport after getting off a United Airlines flight from Chicago, where their decision to change their flight plans raised flags in the U.S., officials said.
They were being held at the airport for questioning, but neither has been charged with any offense in the Netherlands, said Martijn Boelhouwer, spokesman for the national prosecutor's office. Under Dutch law, the men can be held without charges for up to six days.
WBZ's Deb Lawler speaks with ABC's Linda Albin at the foreign desk in London:
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Edmond Messchaert, a spokesman for the Dutch National Coordinator for Counterterrorism, said his agency was aware of the case but would not comment further. Dutch authorities do not release the names of suspects in criminal investigations. Boelhouwer would not confirm their nationalities or say if U.S. authorities had requested their extradition.
But a U.S. law enforcement official identified the men as Ahmed Mohamed Nasser al Soofi and Hezam al Murisi.
Al Soofi had an address in Detroit, Michigan, the official said. Another U.S. law enforcement official said the men had not been charged with anything in the United States. They spoke on condition of anonymity to
