Terror suspects' assets unfrozen

A total of 284 bank accounts have been frozen

Four men arrested but released in relation to an alleged plot to attack airliners have had their finances unfrozen.

The Bank of England said the men had now been taken off a list of suspects.

The announcement came as a Treasury minister told Parliament eight suspect terrorists have had assets frozen.

Some 284 separate bank accounts and £625,000 of suspected terrorist funds have been frozen in the UK since 2001.

The Bank of England monitors the bank accounts of suspects and compiles a special international list of terrorism suspects.

That list is designed to freeze assets and combat terrorist activity. It includes people suspected of an offence but not necessarily charged. In a statement, the Bank said that four men had now been removed from the list:

• Asmin Amin Tariq of Walthamstow, London
• Umair Hussain of London E14
• Tayib Rauf of Birmingham
• Abdullah Assan Khan of Walthamstow, London

The four were all arrested in August 2006 in connection with an alleged plot to target airliners but later released without charge.

In a separate statement to MPs, Economic Secretary Kitty Ussher said the bank accounts of eight people suspected of being linked to terrorism had been frozen by the government between July and September this year.

Four had been closed on the basis of secret "closed source" intelligence. Officials used powers under the Terrorism (United Nations Measures) Orders 2006 to examine and close the four accounts.