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| Europe |
| Dutchies try terror suspects... |
| 2002-12-02 |
| The head of the Dutch secret service, Siebrand van Hulst, has been giving evidence on the first day of the trial in the Netherlands of four men accused of having links with al-Qaeda. The four - Frenchman Jerome Courtailler, Algerians Abdelkader Rabia and Adel Tobbichi, and Saad Ibrahim, a Dutch national of Ethiopian origin - are accused of planning attacks on US targets in Europe. In a rare courtroom appearance, Mr Van Huls debated with the judges as to what information he could disclose without revealing sources or intelligence-gathering methods. But he did hand over 14 wire taps of the suspects' telephone calls. Three of the men - the Frenchman, one Algerian and the Dutchman - were picked up by police in swoops less than 48 hours after last year's suicide attacks. Searches of their Rotterdam apartment turned up stolen passports, videotapes of Osama Bin Laden and explosives manuals, prosecutors said. The other Algerian suspect was arrested in Canada and extradited to the Netherlands. If found guilty, the four face a maximum sentence of eight years and 10 months in prison. The accused will be asked to plead to charges later this week at the trial, which is being held under tight security. A total of nine people in France and three in Belgium have been arrested in connection with the case. And thousands more to go. I have a hard time forming a picture in my mind of the Dutch Secret Service. Is there anything there? Or is a just another Eurocracy? |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |
| #1 And the Dutch Secret Service does "swoops". I just can't come up with a comment after that. |
| Posted by: Chuck 2002-12-03 10:29:01 |