Terror suspect zips lip; fears retribution

UPI
Sep. 19, 2006

Claimed fear of retribution by Pakistani security agents has brought a temporary halt to terror trial proceedings in London.

Omar Khyam, accused with six others of plotting a bombing campaign in Britain, stopped testifying at the Old Bailey after saying his family in Pakistan had been threatened by Pakistan's Directorate for Inter-Service Intelligence, or ISI. "I just want to say the ISI in Pakistan has had words with my family relating to what I have been saying about them," The Evening Standard quoted Khyam as telling the court Monday. "I think they (ISI) are worried I might reveal more about them, so right now ... the priority for me has to be the safety of my family so I am going to stop (testifying).

"I'm not going to discuss anything related to the ISI anymore, or to the evidence."

Khyam, said to be a member of an al-Qaida-related terror cell, was arrested in March 2004 after more than half a ton of ammonium nitrate fertilizer that could be used as an explosive was found in a London storage facility.

Khyam has denied charges of conspiracy to cause an explosion.

In earlier testimony he described how he had traveled to Pakistan to receive military training and how he had raised money through fraud for Islamists in Afghanistan.