THE HAGUE - A Dutch man suspected of belonging to an Islamic extremist organisation has been released from custody, a Dutch prosecution official said Tuesday.
The man was still under suspicion but there was not enough evidence to support his continued detention, a spokesman for the public prosecutor told AFP.
Identified by Dutch media as Bilal L., the 47-year-old man of Moroccan origin was released on Friday after being arrested on June 8 on suspicion of being a member of the Hofstad extremist group.
He was initially suspected of being involved in planning an attack on a female Dutch member of parliament of Somali origin, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who lives under police protection after receiving threats from Islamist extremists.
The prosecutor's office had said in a statement it was thought "his fingerprints were those found on a letter speaking of an attack on the member of parliament Hirsi Ali." However scientific analysis showed this was not in fact the case.
There are 11 other men currently being held in the Netherlands and awaiting trial on charges of belonging to the Hofstad group.
They are accused of membership of an extremist organisation and of conspiracy, in particular in the killing filmmaker and writer Theo Van Gogh, murdered on November 2 in Amsterdam, and political figures such as Hirsi Ali, an outspoken critic of Islam, and far-right deputy Geert Wilders.
06/28/2005 15:02 GMT