By KATIE FRETLAND
Associated Press Writer
LONDON- Investigators must either charge five Britons in a plot to use liquid explosives to bomb trans-Atlantic jetliners, or set them free Wednesday after four weeks in custody.
For the first time, police have used new powers to detain suspects for the maximum of 28 days without charge.
The suspects, arrested following a major anti-terror operation on Aug. 9-10, must be charged or released on Wednesday, when orders for their detention expire.
A total of 15 people, including the mother of an 8-month-old boy and her husband, have been charged in the alleged plot to assemble and detonate improvised explosives on board as many as 10 U.S.-bound planes. Five other people have been released.
The allegedly planned attack, on the degree of the destruction caused by Sept. 11 in New York, would have caused mass murder on an “unimaginable scale,” investigators said. News of the plot released in early August led to major terror alerts in the United States and Britain, and caused major disruptions in air travel.
Eleven suspects have been charged with conspiracy to commit murder and preparing acts of terrorism. Four have appeared in court on lesser charges, including knowing about terrorist activity and not disclosing information about it.
The trial for at least eight of the suspects accused of the most serious offenses will not begin before 2008, prosecutor Colin Gibbs said this week. Investigators continue to study evidence including alleged explosive materials, computers, phone records and documents.
Police have said they found hydrogen peroxide, bomb-making components and six martyrdom videos during nearly 70 searches of homes, businesses, vehicles and open spaces, including a stretch of woods in High Wycombe.
Investigators on Wednesday were also continuing to question 12 suspects aged 17 to 48 in a separate plot to run terrorism training and indoctrination camps across Britain. Two others arrested in that case were released Tuesday.