 A prosecutor in France Wednesday called for a maximum 10-year prison sentence against an Islamic militant accused of plotting a suicide car-bombing of the US embassy in Paris in 2002. Djamel Beghal, 39, who is suspected of being the leader of five other men standing trial in the alleged plot, was arrested at Dubai airport July 28, 2001. The prosecution has maintained that he was on his way back to France to carry out the bombing when he was detained.
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According to the prosecution, Beghal confessed to having twice met with Abu Zubaydah, a top aide to Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, at a training camp in Afghanistan in March 2001. It is alleged Abu Zubaydah told him to organise a cell in Paris to plan the embassy attack. French investigators say Beghal, a Franco-Algerian, was the operational mastermind behind a radical Islamist cell that had contacts in Britain, Belgium, Spain, the Netherlands and Germany. The other members of the group, including computer expert Kamel Daoudi, were identified in surveillance operations conducted after Beghal's arrest.
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The prosecutor, Christophe Teissier, also requested a maximum 10-year jail term for Daoudi and terms of between five and eight years for the other four accused. The trial is expected to end on February 16, but it will be several weeks before a final judgement is known. |