Veolia cleaners could sue over Pope ‘terror’ arrests

Published: 24 September 2010
by JOSH LOEB

FIVE innocent cleaners arrested in Marylebone over an alleged terror plot to blow up the Pope are taking steps to sue the Metropolitan Police.

The men, all employees of Veolia – the company contracted to keep Westminster’s streets clean – were locked up for two days under the Terrorism Act 2000 after the raid on their depot in Chiltern Street in the ­early hours of Friday.

Police had been informed that the men, who are Algerian, were plotting to assassinate the Pope. A sixth man, who is Sudanese, was arrested at his home. They were all subsequently released without charge.

Veolia has reportedly banned the men from talking to the Press but on Wednesday a com­pany insider told the West End Extra the men had been extremely distressed by the episode.

The source said one of them was unaware of the Pope’s visit and had ­initially misheard investigators and asked why they were accusing him of wanting to blow up a “pub”.

They had reportedly been overheard making a joke in a staff canteen about the bulletproof windows of the Pope’s van and discussing whether a rocket might puncture them.

Human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson QC told the West End Extra that in order to success­fully sue the police, the men would have to prove that counter-terrorism officers “had no reasonable cause to suspect them”.

He said: “The police are entitled to act on reasonable suspicion that someone is planning to harm another person. But once they have investigated, if the police find there is no reason to suspect them, they have a duty to release that person.”

Stephen Higgins, secretary of the Westminster branch of public sector union UNISON, called the arrests “absolutely ridiculous”, adding: “If the police are really going and arresting people based on evidence like that, God help us. I imagine this was quite scary for the people arrested and I would hope the police would apol­ogise to them.”

Murad Qureshi, Labour London Assembly member for Westminster, said he thought the raid had “reflected badly” on the Met, pledging to ask Mayor Boris Johnson for his views on the matter. 

Yesterday (Thursday) Mohamed Nacer, who runs the north London-based Arab Advice Bureau, said two of the cleaners had approached him for advice about suing for wrongful arrest.

The Met confirmed all six men had been released without charge but declined to comment further.

Veolia chief executive Jean-Dominique Mallet said: “Veolia Environmental Services prides itself on working to the highest possible level of legal conformance and integrity. Following the arrests last week of a number of our  staff we are pleased to acknowledge that we have co-operated to the fullest extent with Westminster City Council and the Metropolitan Police. We operate in an extremely sensitive environment and take security very seriously indeed. 

“We fully co-operate at all times with the police and the UK Border Agency, ensuring our checks are stringent and our systems are robust, and these will continue to be monitored to ensure we maintain our high levels of service, acting immediately on any advice received.”