Montenegro terror plot Albanian arrested in Austria

Montenegro terror plot Albanian arrested in Austria

There was no immediate confirmation from the Austrian police.

The arrest comes a day after Montenegrin authorities charged the 18 with planning a series of terrorist attacks with an aim to carve out an autonomous region for the ethnic Albanian minority in Montenegro.

Members of the group were arrested in September, on the eve of the Montenegrin general election.

The indictment against Ljucaj alleges he and other suspects intended to "use explosives and weapons for terrorist acts aimed at controlling ... military posts, police precincts and other important facilities" in an ethnic Albanian-populated eastern part of Montenegro.

If convicted, the suspects face up to 15 years in jail each. No trial date has been set.

About 7 percent of Montenegro's 620,000 people are ethnic Albanian, a minority that generally has good relations with the government and has long had their lawmakers in the nation's parliament.

Unlike their fellow-ethnic Albanians in Serbia's Kosovo province, the Montenegrin Albanians have not formed a separatist movement or disputed Montenegrin government rule.