The Dutch government said today it was investigating a radical Muslim group it suspects has links to the man accused of killing a filmmaker critical of Islam and to bombings in Casablanca last year.
Interior Minister Mr Johan Remkes and Justice Minister Mr Piet Hein Donner told parliament in a letter outlining a security crackdown that the Dutch-Moroccan charged with murdering Theo van Gogh had helped a group under observation since summer 2002.
They said the young Muslims of North African origin centred on Amsterdam often met at Mohamed B's home. The 26-year-old was charged last week with killing Van Gogh, conspiring to murder a politician and membership of a group with "terrorist" plans.
The ministers said members of the group had visited Pakistan, possibly for training for "jihad" or holy war, and had contact with a man suspected by Morocco of involvement in last year's Casablanca bombings and arrested by Spain last October.
The attacks in the Moroccan city in May 2003 killed 45 people, including 12 suicide bombers. Yesterday, police arrested seven people suspected of belonging to a radical Muslim network, two of them after storming a flat in The Hague where they had taken refuge.