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Activist charged over Belgian riot
ANTWERP, Belgium -- Belgian authorities have charged an Arab activist leader with conspiracy to cause disorder, criminal damage and injuring a police officer in riots that followed the murder of an Arab immigrant. The Antwerp public prosecutor's office said 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 race rioting in six months in the city. The charges were announced hours before a memorial service for a 27-year-old Moroccan immigrant, Mohammed Achrak, shot dead by a 66-year-old Belgian in an incident that triggered two days of rioting. The AEL criticised the government for the arrest of its leader. Police said they had searched Abou Jahjah's home and seized documents. "(The) AEL is a real test for democracy in Belgium and we hope that the hysteria that the government is leading will soon come to an end," the group said on its Web site, calling on members and sympathisers to remain calm. The Antwerp prosecutor's office said Jahjah had been charged with criminal association, being an accomplice to public disorder while showing arms, deliberately blocking traffic, destroying vehicles, and assaulting and wounding a police officer. The AEL has denied inciting the violence. Jahjah will make a his first court appearance next Tuesday. Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt vowed on Thursday to crack down on the AEL, saying the government was considering banning the group. "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. The AEL denied inciting rioting after the shooting, saying that on the contrary it had tried to calm the situation. The group accuses the police of institutional racism against Arab immigrants. Reuters contributed to this report.
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