arch/ive/ief (2000 - 2005)

"ANTWERP, Belgium, Nov 29 (Reuters) - Belgian authorities charged an Arab activist leader on Friday with conspiracy to cause disorder, criminal damage and wounding a police officer in riots that followed the murder of a young Arab immigrant.

The Antwerp public prosecutor's office said in a statement that Dyab Abou Jahjah, the Lebanese-born leader of the Arab European League (AEL), was suspected of being an accomplice in the second serious outbreak of ethnic rioting in six months in the port city -- a bastion of Belgium's extreme right."

"Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt vowed on Thursday to crack down on the AEL, saying the government was considering banning the immigrant activist group which has organised pro-Palestinian protests and video surveillance of the police.

"The league is trying to terrorise the city," he told parliament, saying it was trying to set up no-go areas for the police in Antwerp's heavily immigrant neighbourhoods."
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