 | The Frenchies aren't shy about rolling up terrorist networks in their own country. Thank you France for this one. |
PARIS (AP) - A court on Wednesday convicted 25 people for their roles in preparing a terror attack in France in support of Islamic fighters in Chechnya. The five top defendants each received prison terms of eight to 10 years, while the others received lesser sentences. Two were acquitted.
All but one defendant had been accused of helping Islamic fighters in Chechnya in what prosecutors said underscored the "globalization of the jihad movement." However, prosecutors were unable to prove the attack was to have involved chemicals even though investigators found equipment and chemicals, including the highly toxic ricin.
| So it's a B+, not an A, for the prosecutor. The thug boys still end up in jug. |
The prosecution contended the group was plotting an attack in Paris, but could not define the target. The Russian Embassy, a police station and the Eiffel Tower were mentioned during interrogations.
The court gave the maximum 10-year term to the group's alleged chemicals expert, Menad Benchellali. However, Menad's father, Chellali Benchellali, a Muslim prayer leader in the Lyon suburb of Venissieux, received only an 18-month suspended prison term - far lower than the prosecution's demand for six years behind bars.
| Apple didn't fall far from the tree, did it. |
"These convictions profit the United States, Algeria and Russia," said Isabelle Coutant, lawyer for defendent Merouane Benhamed. "They have been convicted because they are Muslims."
| "Everybody keeps picking on us!" |
The court convicted 24 defendents of criminal association in relation with a terrorist enterprise, a broad charge used by France to sweep wide in bringing terror suspects to justice. One other was convicted of using false papers.
The Benchellali family was at the center of the case, with Menad's mother, Hafsa, and brother, Hafed, also convicted for roles in the plot to carry out the Paris attack. Hafed received four years in prison and the mother got a two-year suspended sentence.
The terror network was dismantled in two waves. In December 2002, investigators stormed two houses in the Paris suburb of La Courneuve and the nearby town of Romainville. They found gas canisters, fuses, chemicals and a suit to protect against chemical attacks. In January 2004, investigators carried out another raid in Venissieux, finding chemical products, including ricin. They said that raid definitively broke up the network.
Prosecutor Anne Kostomaroff said the group was formed in Algeria in 1999, where eight members had refused an Algerian government amnesty plan for Islamic insurgents in the North African country. Various members then traveled to Spain, France, Italy and the border region between Pakistan and Afghanistan, while a core group formed in the Paris region in late 2000 to create a support ring for Islamic militants in the war-ravaged Russian republic of Chechnya.
However, the Benchellali family has long been established in Lyon. Imam Benchellali is known to have occasionally used his makeshift mosque on the ground floor of a high-rise building to collect funds for Islamic fighters in Chechnya.
| For the Chechnyan Widows Ammunition Fund. |
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