Britain freezes assets of 19 terror suspects

London, Aug 11: The British Government today said it had frozen the assets of 19 of the 24 air terror suspects.

A Treasury spokesman said Chancellor Gordon Brown had instructed the Bank of England to freeze the assets of 19 of those arrested yesterday in connection with an alleged plot to blow up passenger jets leaving UK airports for the US.

''On the advice of the police and security services, the Treasury has instructed the Bank of England to issue notices to effect a freeze of the assets of a number of individuals arrested in yesterday's operations, under the terms of the Terrorism (United Nations Measures) Order 2001,'' Economic Secretary to the Treasury Ed Balls said.

''This makes it a criminal offence to make these persons' funds available to any person, except under the authority of a licence issued by the Treasury.'' ''Accounts held by them with UK financial institutions are in effect frozen until further notice. The Treasury will review the need for further use of our asset-freezing powers as we receive further advice from the police and security services.'' The Bank of England has named 19 of the 24 air terror suspects of which nine are from Walthamstow. Their names are Abdula Ahmed Ali, Waheed Zaman, Muhammed Usman Saddique, Amin Asmin Tariq, Ibrahim Savant, Usman Saddique, Osman Adam Khatib, Waheed Arafat Khan and Cossor Ali.

Four suspects from High Wycombe are as Shazad Khuram Ali, Waseem Kayani, Assad Sarwar and Umar Islam.

The Bank also named Nabeel Hussain, Umair Hussain, Assan Abdullah Khan, Nabeel Hussain, Umair Hussain and Abdul Muneem Patel of London, Tayib Rauf of Birmingham, Shamin Mohammed Uddin of Stoke Newington and Tanvir Hussain of Leyton.

UNI

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