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Fourth murder plot suspect released

A fourth suspect in the plot to assassinate Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilks for his caricature of the Prophet Muhammad has been released without charge by Irish police.

Published: 14 March 2010 09:56 CET

The woman was detained on Tuesday as part of a group of seven suspected of plotting to kill Vilks, who has a $100,000 bounty on his head from an Al-Qaeda-linked group.

Three men still remain in custody in Ireland, while two other women and a man were freed without charge on Friday.

Police said files on all four suspects freed so far will be prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), meaning charges could still be brought.

“A female arrested on March 9 and detained at Thomastown Garda (police) station (in southeast Ireland) has been released from custody this afternoon,” said a brief statement.

The seven original suspects included three Algerians, a Libyan, a Palestinian, a

Croatian and a US national, a police source told the news agency AFP. They ranged in age from mid-20s to late-40s.

This week, the Irish Independent newspaper reported that an eighth suspect in the plot, “Jihad Jane”, the online name of Colleen LaRose, spent two weeks in Ireland last September on a “fact-finding trip” before her arrest in October. According to a report from the Washington Post, she also travelled to Sweden in August to locate Vilks and plan his murder.

LaRose has been indicted in the US for recruiting jihadist fighters in the US, Europe

and Asia in a bid to carry out terror plots.

The US Justice Department has declined to confirm whether LaRose was connected to the alleged plot to kill Vilks.

When will Irish travellers be able to return to Spain?

Photo: Josep LAGO / AFP

Spain is one of the top holiday destinations for Irish tourists, being the most popular country for travellers from Ireland for the four years prior to the start of the pandemic in 2020.

In 2019, Spain welcomed almost two million Irish holidaymakers to its shores.

So, when will Irish travellers and second home owners be able to holiday in Spain again?

There is currently an Irish Government Advisory in operation against all non-essential international travel, which means that travel to Spain is not allowed right now, but will this change in time for the summer season?

Taoiseach (Irish Prime Minister) Micheál Martin has suggested that there may be a possibility of holiday travel within Europe starting from late July or August, if the risks associated with Covid-19 are low enough to allow it.

When asked on Morning Ireland RTÉ Radio, whether this will mean that holidaymakers will be able to fly to Spain in late July and August, he replied that the advice was certain that people should avoid all non-essential travel for May and June.

However, he confirmed that the situation would open up more in July, if transmission rates continued to decline.

“We cannot stay disconnected forever. Ireland is a globalised country,” he said.

“We have to assess all the risks as we move forward. Travel resuming towards the latter half of July is a possibility,” he continued.

Tánaiste (Ireland’s Deputy Prime Minister) Leo Varadkar echoed these sentiments when on April 29th,he told the Irish Independent: “It is, I think just too soon for that return to international travel”, promising the Government would study the issue next month.

“We may be able to allow international travel among countries where the population is substantially vaccinated, but we’re not there yet,” he said.

However, Spain’s Tourism Minister Fernando Valdés has said that Spain will welcome visitors from June.

He outlined the plans at the World Travel & Tourism Council summit in Mexico last week, saying that Spain would participate in a pilot digital certificate scheme in May and would be “ready to receive visitors in June”.

The EU’s Covid-19 certificates, formerly known as Digital Green Certificates, will allow travel to resume across the bloc’s 27 member states by providing information on whether tourists have been vaccinated already, if they have a negative PCR test or if they’ve recently recovered from Covid-19.

READ ALSO: What’s the latest on the EU Covid passports and how will they work in practice?

Initially, Taoiseach Martin highlighted the difficulties in the domestic use of such a document and voiced concerns about how the Covid-19 passport could be discriminatory and limit the freedoms of members of the public who have not yet had a vaccine.

However, on May 1st, it was announced that Ireland is among a group of EU countries that have signed up to a pilot to test the certificate.

A target date of June 1st has been set for the technical launch of the certificates with an actual start date of June 30th.

It is not yet clear, however, how the millions of people who have already been vaccinated will get hold of one.

So, when the EU’s Digital Green Certificates are finally issued and the Irish government agrees that its citizens can travel once more, it’s likely that travel to Spain can resume. For Irish travellers, it’s looking like a Spanish vacation may be on the cards for late summer.

READ ALSO: Spain will allow EU travellers with vaccine passports to sidestep covid tests and quarantines

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