Three British Islamists jailed for four years in Egypt over membership of a banned group are being questioned under terror laws after landing at Heathrow.
Hizb ut-Tahrir members Ian Nisbet and Reza Pankhurst, from London, and Maajid Nawaz from Essex, were granted early release from their five-year sentences.
Their families and Hizb ut-Tahrir leaders were prepared to welcome them back after they landed at 1252 GMT.
But Special Branch detectives can now hold them for up to nine hours.
Scotland Yard emphasised that the three men were not under arrest but had been "detained under police border controls".
Head of Fair Trials Abroad, Stephen Jakobi, who is acting as the men's lawyer, said they were co-operating with police officers.
"The situation is that nobody told Special Branch anything was happening and they picked up their news from what's going round in the papers", said Mr Jakobi.
Hizb ut-Tahrir, which campaigns for all majority Muslim countries to become Islamic states, is outlawed in Egypt but remains legal in Britain.
(BBC)
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