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| Europe |
| Court acquits 14 terror accused |
| 2008-10-07 |
| SPAIN'S Supreme Court today acquitted on appeal 14 of the 20 men who were sentenced jail in February for belonging to an Islamic terrorist group suspected of planning to blow up a courthouse. The National Audience, Spain's top anti-terrorism court, had sentenced the 14 to prison terms from seven to 11 years for membership in an al-Qaeda-inspired cell. The Supreme Court also reduced the sentence of another man from nine to two years. It acquited him of belonging to a terrorist cell but upheld a conviction for document forgery. The court confirmed all the convictions against five others, including Abderrahman Tahiri, also known as Mohammed Achraf, who was found to have tried to obtain explosives in order to blow up a court with a massive truck bomb. Tahri, who is considered to be the cell leader, received the stiffest sentence of 14 years behind bars. The men were arrested in 2004, several months after the Madrid train bombings of March 11 that killed 191 people and which were claimed in the name of al-Qaeda by an Islamic cell. Prosecutors charged the men during their trial with planning an attack either on the National Audience, the Supreme Court, a Madrid metro station or the headquarters of Spain's opposition Popular Party. |
| Posted by:tipper |