BOSTON/PARIS/BRUSSELS, 25 December — A man thwarted in an alleged effort to blow up a trans-Atlantic flight with explosives packed in his shoes was charged in court here yesterday with interfering with a flight crew as security at airports worldwide was tightened. The charge carries a maximum of 20 years in prison.
Though the suspect was charged under the name of British passport holder Richard C. Reid, 28, investigators are still probing his identity amid confusion over his name and nationality.
The tall, lanky, long-haired suspect has alternately identified himself to US authorities as Sri Lanka-born Tariq Raja, born in 1973, and as Abdel Rahim, French police have said.
Sri Lankan authorities in Colombo denied he is a national of theirs and his passport, obtained three weeks earlier in Brussels from the British Consulate, bears his picture and names him as Richard Colvin Reid, also born in 1973.
Meanwhile, Brussels police sources said the passport found on the shoe bomber was reportedly stolen three weeks ago from the British Embassy in Brussels.
"At this point in time, the information we have is that the defendant is Richard C Reid, traveling on a British passport," US Attorney Michael Sullivan told journalists after the five-minute hearing. US investigators are also trying to establish whether the suspect acted alone or as part of a group and FBI special agent Charles Prouty said "We are considering every possibility."
The suspect had tried unsuccessfully a day earlier to board the American Airlines flight from Paris to Miami but achieved his goal Saturday, traveling without luggage on a round-trip ticket to the Caribbean island of Antigua reportedly purchased at a travel agency in the 18th district of Paris.
He was reported to have spent Friday night at an airport hotel, paying cash for his room. Stashed in his shoes, according to French police citing unnamed US investigators, was about 200 grams (under half a pound) of pentrite, a hard-to-manufacture substance often used as a detonator in military ordnance.
The amount of explosive found would have had a blast effect similar to that of many anti-personnel mines, which according to the source, would have been unlikely to have blown up the Boeing 767.
The source said the explosive shoes were equipped with a firework-type detonation device involving a simple fuse and acetone, making it possible to ignite it with the strike of a match — something the suspect was allegedly trying to do when he was caught by a flight attendant. "It could have exploded as it was configured," said FBI agent Prouty.
