A report on the incident has said that although all six men were later released without charge, police were justified in making the arrests after receiving a call at 4.30pm on September 16, the day before the Pope was due to arrive in London.
The caller reported that five men were looking at a picture in the Metro newspaper of the Pope’s motor vehicle and talking about a recent incident where the Koran was allegedly burned.
They were overheard saying that a “Christian should be killed for every page that was damaged” according to the report by David Anderson QC, the independent reviewer of terrorism legislation.
“The view was expressed that whilst the Pope’s vehicle was protected, it could be stopped and that even if he survived, those around him would die,” Mr Anderson said.
“Comments were made to the effect that it would be wonderful if the Pope was killed and that there were virgins waiting for them.”...
One of the men was said to have returned from Paris on Monday or Tuesday of that week having shaven his hair off and become radicalised....
By 5.15 armed police were ready to make an arrest at the Veolia depot on Chiltern Street in London’s West End and the men were detained as they arrived for work and hour later.
A sixth man was arrested after arriving at work, hearing of the arrests and leaving in a agitated state, around the same time that the Pope’s convoy was making its way into central London.
The men were all of Algerian origin and living and working in Britain legally apart from one man who was Sudanese and admitted that his asylum application had been turned down and he had assumed a false identity in order to obtain work....
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