Terror suspects being interrogated

In the bleak, windowless interrogation rooms of London8217;s high-security Paddington Green police station...

In the bleak, windowless interrogation rooms of London8217;s high-security Paddington Green police station, detectives are questioning suspects in the alleged plot to bring down as many as 10 trans-Atlantic airliners.

The gray concrete box-like building, whose detention areas extend deep underground, has often been at the centre of terrorism investigations.

With 23 suspects in custody and nearly 50 locations being searched in the alleged mass-murder plot, police are now focusing on gathering enough evidence to press charges within the 28 days allowed by law, said Charles Shoebridge, a former counterterrorism officer with London8217;s Metropolitan Police.

That limit for terror suspects was doubled from 14 days after the July 2005 bombings on London8217;s transit system. Shoebridge said police are likely following to the letter the laws governing treatment of detainees8212;giving them three meals a day and allowing at least eight hours sleep8212;to ensure that no future trials will be jeopardised by claims that any testimony was coerced.

But lawyers for those who have been held at Paddington Green say it8217;s a grim environment that has left many detainees traumatised.

Paddington Green was designed to confront the Irish Republican Army threat, and for many years was used for the interrogation of top IRA suspects. It became a target in 1992, when the IRA blew up a phone booth outside the station, wounding one person.

London8217;s Metropolitan Police declined to comment on procedures at the station or even to confirm that the terror plot suspects are there.

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Those being held in the airline terror case have likely had access to their lawyers by now and are regularly given halal food and time to pray, Shoebridge said.

The suspects are probably interviewed once or twice a day for a maximum of two hours at a time, he said.

Police8212;who are awaiting physical evidence from searches at 49 sites8212;will likely focus their questioning on suspects8217; identities, the relationships among them and their movements over the past few months, he said.

E-mails, financial information, physical evidence, closed circuit TV footage and the contents of computer hard drives are all likely to be key to the investigation, Shoebridge said.

8211;BETH GARDINER