Spain 's High Court jailed an Al-Qaeda leader to 27 years in jail yesterday for conspiring with the September 11 th plotters but cleared him and two others of killing 2,973 people in the attacks on New York and Washington. The court also sentenced Al Jazeera journalist Tayseer Alouni to seven years in prison for collaborating with a terrorist group, a decision that drew strong criticism from the Arab station and international media groups. In all, 18 of the 24 defendants in Europe's biggest trial of suspected Islamist militants were convicted - mostly for belonging to or cooperating with Al-Qaeda. Sentences ranged from six years to 27 years in jail. Despite the convictions, the High Court threw out the most serious charges in what was the latest in a series of high-profile terrorism trials around Europe in which prosecutors have had only limited success.
The High Court sentenced Syrian-born Imad Eddin Barakat Yarkas, leader of an Al-Qaeda cell in Spain, to 12 years in jail for leading a terrorist group and 15 years and for "conspiracy to commit terrorist murder" in connection with the September 11 th, 2001 attacks on the United States. The court ruled that prosecutors had not proved that Yarkas, also known as Abu Dahdah, took part in that attack on the World Trade Center but there was evidence he had helped to plan it, working with a radical cell in Hamburg. It said Yarkas, 41, was aware of the "sinister plans" for the attacks and was kept informed of preparations for them. Yarkas and two other defendants, Moroccan-born Driss Chebli and Syrian-born Ghasoub al Abrash Ghalyoun, could have faced jail sentences of more than 74,000 years each if convicted of playing an active role in the September 11 th attacks.
A three-judge panel heard more than 100 witnesses during a two-and-a-half month trial. Six defendants were acquitted on all counts, including Ghalyoun who was accused of giving a video of New York landmarks to Al-Qaeda to help them carry out the September 11 th attacks. The video, played at the trial, contained standard holiday filming.
The Arab satellite broadcaster Al Jazeera denounced the sentencing of Alouni, who interviewed Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden shortly after the September 11 th attacks. "This is a black day for the Spanish judiciary which has deviated from all the norms of international justice," Al Jazeera news editor Ahmed Al-Sheikh told the station. A European media watchdog said the decision to jail him would set alarm bells ringing among investigative journalists. "Journalists have always investigated terrorist groups and their activities. It's part of our job," said Jean-Francois Julliard, news editor of the Paris-based watchdog Reporters without Borders.
All the defendants had pleaded not guilty and representatives of several said they would appeal. Chebli was jailed for six years for co-operating with an armed group, but acquitted of murder. Two other defendants, Ousama Darra and Jasem Mahboule, were jailed for 11 years each for being leaders of Al-Qaeda. The wife of Abdalrahman Alarnot, jailed for eight-and-a-half years for belonging to a terrorist organization, said her husband had nothing to do with terrorism. "How do you explain such an injustice to the children?" the wife, who declined to give her name, told reporters.
Yarkas and Chebli were accused of helping to prepare a meeting in Spain in July 2001 at which prosecutors said the September 11 attacks might have been planned. Hijacker Mohamed Atta and Ramzi bin Al-Shaibah, suspected coordinator of the US attacks, were alleged to have attended. The evidence against Yarkas included a wiretapped phone conversation he had on August 27, 2001 with Farid Hilali, another September 11 th suspect held in Britain. The trial pre-dates the Al-Qaeda-linked Madrid train bombings in March 2004 that killed 191 people. Another judge has charged more than 100 people with a role in those attacks.
The Daily Star, Lebanon, 28 September 2005
Summary of report
Suspected Islamic militants are being questioned for a second day by anti-terrorist investigators. They had been looking at the Paris metro system, an airport and the headquarters of the French domestic intelligence service as targets, officials said.
Nine people were detained in a series of dawn raids in poor neighborhoods of towns west of Paris on Monday. Officials said they were members of the Algerian Islamist organization, the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC). Investigators have until Friday to question the detainees, after which they must be released or brought before an anti-terrorist judge.
Among those being held was Safe Bourada, 35, who was released from prison in 2003 after serving five years for helping to organize a series of bomb attacks that killed nine people in France in 1995. At his trial in 1997, Bourada was described as an important link with the Armed Islamic Group (GIA), the Algerian formation that was the main anti-government force during the country's long Islamic insurgency. The GSPC was created by a split in the GIA.
The investigation leading to the arrests began after the newly released Bourada was placed under surveillance. There was a breakthrough two months ago when police arrested of a group of men holding up a Moroccan prostitute, officials said. Investigators discovered that these men had links with former members of the GIA.
In Italy, the Interior Minister, Giuseppe Pisanu, said that underestimating the threat of terrorism would be an "unatonable sin," adding that measures including the monitoring of mosques and call centers seemed to be working. Pisanu's comments come a day after police in Milan arrested 11 people suspected of constituting a militant Islamist cell. He said that the Italian authorities have been watching 13,000 mosques, call centers, Islamic centers and other buildings suspected of terrorist connections. He did not elaborate except to say that this was proving an effective deterrent.
"Unfortunately we know that the threat looms over Europe and our country, and we must face it as best we can," Pisanu told reporters at the end of a meeting of the National Security Committee. "It would be an unatonable sin to underestimate the terrorist threat."
During the Milan operation, investigators said they were hunting for evidence of terrorist financial activity and that a certain shop served as cover for supporters of an Islamist Algerian group. Police said that the dismantled cell was welcoming members of the Islamist organization to Italy and was involved in recruiting for the jihad in Algeria by providing false papers. A parallel investigation is under way in Algeria, the Milan police said
