Nuclear physicist admits link to al-Qaeda plotters: Report

An internationally renowned nuclear physicist has admitted to French investigators that he acted as an al-Qaeda "mole", the media reported today quoting French judicial sources.

A picture began to emerge over the weekend of Adlene Hicheur, 32, who works at the "Big Bang" hadron collider on the Swiss-French border, and who is likely to be formally accused today of having "links with a terrorist organisation".
 
However, his brother, Zitouni Hicheur, 25, who was arrested with him last Thursday at their parents' home just south of Lyon, has been released, The Independent newspaper reported.
 
Investigators believe the elder brother, who has worked on high-level nuclear research projects in Britain and the United States, acted alone when he sent e-mails to Algerian members of al-Qaeda and listed potential terrorist targets in France.

The experiment where he worked is one of a series of research projects along the 17-mile (27-kilometre) circular tunnel under the Swiss-French border.