Scientists support imprisoned colleague

Nineteen physicists have signed a letter to the French Physical Society saying they are deeply concerned about Adlene Hicheur, 33, a French-Algerian who until his arrest was a postdoctoral researcher at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne and worked on the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, near Geneva, Switzerland.

"The research career of Adlene, even in the case that he is publicly demonstrated to be innocent of all charges, is greatly endangered by the length and the arbitrariness of the procedure," the group wrote.

Hicheur was arrested in October 2009 at his family's home in the south of France, suspected of plotting terrorism attacks with 'al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb' -- the North African branch of al-Qaida, the journal Nature reported.

Those who worked with Hicheur describe him as a shy but affable scientist who loved political debate and say they have deep doubts about the accusations.

The case remains open with no firm date for either a trial or a formal indictment.

"My opinion is that it is an empty case," Hicheur's attorney Dominique Beyreuther-Minkov says.

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