Britain names on-the-run al Qaeda-linked suspect

LONDON, June 14 (Reuters) An on-the-run British terrorism suspect, linked to one of the London 2005 suicide bombers, was named today after a court lifted an order that banned revealing his identity.

Zeeshan Siddiqui, who officials also say has links to al Qaeda, escaped from a psychiatric unit last year while under a government ''control order'' designed to keep suspects who have not been convicted of a crime under close supervision.

The media had been barred from reporting his name as those held under control orders are entitled to anonymity.

British officials say Siddiqui, 25, previously only known as AD, had attended al Qaeda training camps; was said to be an explosives expert and had links to a number of British terrorism groups.

They claim he had close links to Shehzad Tanweer, who was one of four British Islamists who carried out suicide bombings on London's transport system on July 7, 2005, and was good friends with Asif Hanif while at college.

Hanif became the first British suicide bomber when he carried out a deadly attack at a bar in Tel Aviv in 2003.

Siddiqui was arrested in May 2005 by authorities in Pakistan who believed that the British-born Muslim was a close aide of al Qaeda's operational commander, Abu Faraj al-Libbi.

He was held on charges of having false identity papers but was cleared by a court after spending eight years in jail.

On his return to Britain, he was quizzed by security officers about his links to suspected British terrorism cells.

Although there was not enough evidence to charge him with an offence, he was placed under a control order in May last year, which limited his movements and required him to report to police every night.

Two weeks before he was he was due to attend a court hearing for breaching those conditions, he escaped through a window at a psychiatric unit and has been on the run ever since.

Siddiqui's lawyer David Gottlieb said reports of his client's links with British suicide bombers were inaccurate.

''When AD was reported having absconded from a mental hospital, a minister went on (TV) saying he was not a threat to this country,'' Gottlieb told the Old Bailey before the banning order was lifted.

More than a quarter of the terrorism suspects held under the control orders have now absconded. The government said earlier this month it was reviewing the system, which civil rights campaigners have condemned, to see how it could be strengthened.

REUTERS SV PM1846