Dutch authorities are investigating a possible indirect link between the suspected killer of a filmmaker critical of Islam and last year's Casablanca bombings.
The source confirmed a report in the Algemeen Dagblad daily that the suspect, identified by Dutch media as Mohammed B., had connections with people who were questioned after the May 2003 suicide bombings in the Moroccan city which killed 45.
Filmmaker Theo van Gogh was repeatedly stabbed after he was shot as he cycled to work in Amsterdam. His throat was slit and a five-page letter suggesting a "radical Islamic" motive was pinned to his body with a knife.
Police said yesterday that a 26-year-old suspect with dual Moroccan and Dutch nationality arrested after the killing had already come to their attention.
The authorities announced on Wednesday they had arrested eight north Africans who knew the suspect. They said yesterday they were holding the eight on suspicion of terrorist crimes and said they had seized fundamentalist literature in searches of five houses in Amsterdam.
The centre-right government faces mounting criticism for its handling of the case, in particular because the suspect was known to the AIVD security service.
Ms Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Somali refugee who became a deputy for the Dutch liberals and who worked with Mr van Gogh on a film about abuse of Muslim women, said the authorities should have taken death threats against him more seriously.
"I am furious to find out that the murderer of van Gogh was known to the AIVD - I suspect that a stupid, artificial distinction was made between politicians and opinion formers," she said.
Jozias van Aartsen, parliamentary leader of the VVD Liberals who are partners in the government coalition, said the security services had failed.
"The mood reminds me a bit of May 1940. The Netherlands was completely taken by surprise by the German invasion."
Parliament is due to debate the issue next week, probably after the cremation of Mr van Gogh.
The suspect, shot in the leg as police tried to arrest him, is in a prison hospital and will be brought before a judge today.
Police believe the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group was behind the Casablanca attack. Spain suspects it has links with al-Qaeda. - (Reuters)