BELGIUM: An Iranian man who claims he was involved in a bomb plot to blow up a Ryanair flight to Dublin from Charleroi is undergoing psychological tests in Belgium.
The man is being held by Belgian police while they try to ascertain if his story, that he was asked to blow up a Ryanair aircraft last week, is true.
The man (44), who cannot be named for legal reasons, turned himself into police at Charleroi airport on September 27th claiming that a man had asked him to carry a box with a type of plastic explosive on to the flight and detonate it using a specially adapted watch.
Belgian prosecutor Lieve Pellens said the Iranian man was being held in detention while psychological tests were carried out to determine story's accuracy. She said parts of it did not fit with evidence gathered from video surveillance cameras at Charleroi that had already been studied by police.
The man, who was travelling on business to Ireland, had earlier been refused entry on to the Ryanair flight to Dublin after police found irregularities with his visa.
When he turned himself into the police at Charleroi, he said he had handed the bomb to a third person in the airport before approaching them.
He said the bomb was in a box and was composed of a yellow substance that could be detonated with a watch.
The man, who speaks English and some German, is likely to be held for at least two to three weeks until investigators can check his story.
Ms Pellens said the authorities took all threats of this nature seriously. Police had thoroughly searched the man's luggage and his person but no bomb had been found. She said up until now there had been no corroborative evidence to support his story.
Meanwhile, the EU Commission has backed a range of new aviation safety rules to help protect airlines from the threat posed by terrorists.
These include restricting the amount of liquids, gels, pastes and perfume that passengers can take on board aircraft, except those bought at airport shops after security checks.