The Dutch Public Prosecution department has dismissed allegations that three men arrested on New Year's Eve were planning an attack during the New Year celebrations around Rotterdam's Erasmus bridge, Dutch newspaper DeVolkskrant reported Friday.
The three men, aged 31, 32 and 39, are suspected of preparing a terrorist attack, but "it is not known whether there was a potential target for the attack," the paper quoted the public prosecution department as saying.
The three men were arrested in Rotterdam on Dec. 31 by anti-terrorism investigators following a tip-off from the Dutch intelligence service. Two of the men have dual Dutch and Moroccan nationality and one is Sudanese.
The examining magistrate in Rotterdam decided on Thursday that the three men will remain in custody for at least another two weeks. The three are being held in isolation, without contact with the outside world.
Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf on Thursday quoted inside sources as saying the men were planning an attack on crowds around Rotterdam's Erasmus bridge on New Year's Eve. But the public prosecution department said the claims were "plucked from thin air" and criticized the paper for causing unnecessary panic.
The three men were planning an explosion, but no explosives or weapons were found during searches of the men's homes, said a spokesman of the public prosecution department.
The department has no evidence that the suspects had any relationship with suspects in earlier terrorism cases or with internationally operating jihadist networks, the report said.
Despite the arrests, a spokesman of the Dutch National Coordinator for Anti-Terrorism said there was no reason to raise the alert level in the country or take additional measures, the report said.
The last arrests in the Netherlands on charges of preparing a terrorist attack were made in October 2005.
Source: Xinhua
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