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Charges expected in Unabomber case Friday

WASHINGTON: U.S. Justice Department and federal law enforcement sources said Thursday criminal charges were expected to be filed Friday in the case of a former university math professor suspected of being the Unabomber.

The sources said the timetable always could change, but added that FBI agents still were sifting through evidence obtained during the search of the cabin of the suspect, Theodore Kaczynski, in Lincoln, Montana.

The Justice Department said Attorney General Janet Reno would hold her regular weekly news conference at 11 a.m. Thursday. But the officials said she was not ready to make any announcements about the 17-year-old Unabomber case.

FBI agents Wednesday took into custody Kaczynski, who graduated from Harvard University in 1962 with a degree in mathematics, for questioning. He has not yet been charged in connection with the bombings.

After one of the longest and most intense manhunts in FBI history, federal agents finally believe that Kaczynski was the the Unabomber responsible for a string of deadly mail bombings in the United States.

The Unabomber's first bomb exploded at Northwestern University outside Chicago in 1978 and since then 15 explosions have killed three people and wounded 23. The suspect became known as the Unabomber because of targetting universities and airlines in the first bombs.-Reuter