BRISBANE, Australia - Australian police charged an Indian doctor with providing support to a terrorist organization Saturday, allegedly linking him to last month's failed British bomb plots.
Muhammad Haneef, 27, is the second person to be charged in over the botched attacks on London and Glasgow on June 29 and 30. The other is Bilal Abdullah, who is being held in London on charges of conspiring to set off explosions.
Haneef "has been charged with providing support to a terrorist organization," police said in a statement released Saturday. The maximum penalty is 15 years in prison.
Haneef was expected to appear late in the day before the Brisbane Magistrates Court.
Police say they are investigating links between Haneef and some of the other suspects held in connection with two bomb-laden cars found in London on June 29 and an attack on an airport in Glasgow, Scotland, the next day.
Haneef who came to Australia from Britain last year to work in a hospital on the Gold Coast northeast of Sydney, is a distant cousin of Kafeel and Sabeel Ahmed, two of the suspects held in Britain.
The three reportedly shared a house in the British city of Liverpool for up to two years before Haneef moved to Australia, and remained in contact by phone and online messaging after that.
Police have also said they suggest a possible link between Haneef and Abdullah.
Haneef was arrested in the eastern city of Brisbane on July 2 while trying to leave the country on a one-way ticket to India. He says he was rushing home to see his wife and newborn daughter, born June 26. Police have said they do not believe Haneef's explanation.
