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| Europe |
| More on Yarkas's conviction |
| 2005-09-27 |
| Concluding Europe's largest trial to date of alleged Al Qaeda militants, a Spanish tribunal today convicted 18 Muslim immigrants of terrorism charges, among them a purported ringleader found guilty of conspiring to plan the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States. It was a rare conviction of anyone associated with the 2001 attacks in New York and Washington. But the Spanish court dismissed the most serious charges before it, in a stinging blow to efforts here and abroad to prosecute terrorism cases. Among those convicted and sentenced to seven years in prison was the Al Jazeera television correspondent in Spain. Six defendants were acquitted of all charges. The "mega-trial," as it was known in Spain because of its size and potential reach, was seen as an important test of the ability of a democracy to investigate alleged Islamic terrorists in its midst and bring them to justice without sacrificing civil rights. Chief prosecutor Eduardo Fungairino said today's convictions confirmed the Spanish judiciary's contention that it is better to fight terrorism through the legal system than through "wars and detention camps." Still, the penalties handed down today fell far short of what prosecutors had sought. Only three of the 24 defendants were accused of being accomplices to the Sept. 11 attacks, and prosecutors asked that all three be given sentences of 74,000 years: 25 years for each of the nearly 3,000 people killed. The court threw out those charges, citing lack of evidence. Instead, the key defendant, Syrian-born Spanish citizen Imad Eddin Barakat Yarkas, was convicted of conspiracy to commit murder for his role in arranging a meeting near Tarragona in July 2001 for Mohamed Atta. At the meeting, Atta is believed to have finalized his plans to fly hijacked airliners into the World Trade Center and Washington sites. Barakat also was alleged to be the head of an Al Qaeda cell in Spain dedicated to promoting worldwide jihad and recruiting young European Muslims for it. Like all 24 defendants, he maintained his innocence throughout. The court sentenced Barakat to 15 years for the conspiracy role and another 12 years for being the leader of a terrorist group. One of the other men accused of involvement in the Sept. 11 attacks, Moroccan-born Driss Chebli, was cleared of the murder-related charges and instead will be jailed for six years for collaborating with a terrorist group. A third defendant, Ghasoub Abrash Ghalyoun, was acquitted of all charges and freed. He had been accused of making a videotape of potential targets such as the World Trade Center; he maintained it was a video of his vacation. The tape showed him and his friends mugging for the camera and saying "Cheese" while visiting U.S. sites. The verdicts, contained in a 445-page judgment, were read on live television at a special court on the outskirts of Madrid under heavy security. It was there that the "mega-trial" was held for nearly three months over the summer, after years of investigation. The three-member tribunal heard more than 100 witnesses and reviewed 100,000 pages of evidence. While the case predated Madrid's own terror bombings of March 2004, judicial officials had hoped victory here would facilitate the upcoming prosecution of some 100 suspects in those attacks, which killed nearly 300 people riding commuter trains in Madrid. All of the remaining defendants who were not acquitted received sentences from six to 11 years for collaborating with or belonging to a terrorist organization. They included journalist Taysir Alouni, correspondent for the Arab satellite station Al Jazeera, who gained fame by broadcasting the first interview with Osama bin Laden, from Afghanistan, after Sept. 11. Alouni has lived and worked in Spain for many years and was convicted for allegedly ferrying money to Al Qaeda operatives. He was sentenced to seven years. During the trial, he told the court they had put Spain's entire Muslim community under a dark cloud of suspicion. His boss, Al Jazeera news editor Ahmed Sheikh, told his station that the conviction marked "a black day for Spanish justice." He later told CNN that while Al Jazeera respected the Spanish system, the trial was a politically motivated, unfair judgment based on circumstantial evidence. Alouni will appeal, Sheikh said. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |