Two Frenchmen and an Algerian were convicted Tuesday of organizing networks that sent militants to Afghan camps for training in terrorism. The three men were sentenced to between two and 10 years in prison. One of the Frenchmen is the brother of Jerome Courtailler, who was acquitted in 2002 in a trial in the Netherlands of plotting an attack on the U.S. Embassy in Paris. During the trial, prosecutors alleged that David Courtailler, 28, had met with Jamal Zougam - a Moroccan who is a prime suspect in March 11 railway bombings in Madrid that killed 191 people. Courtailler was sentenced to two years plus a two-year suspended sentence and a warrant was issued for his arrest. Courtailler, who lives in the French Alps, was not detained during the trial.
| I hope he doesn't explode when they go to round him up... |
The other Frenchman, Ahmed Laidouni, 35, was handed a seven-year sentence. The Algerian, Mohamed Baadache, 34, received a maximum 10 years.
| Seems to me that if you go to somebody else's country to do something terrible the sentence should be doubled or something... |
Prosecutor Christophe Teissier charged that the men helped organize the networks so militants could later return to Europe with terrorist aims. Courtailler went to Afghanistan in 1997, training for six months at a camp in Khost, south of Kabul, prosecutors said. Between November 1998 and January 1999, he met Zougam in Spain and went to Morocco to learn Arabic.
| Y'gotta know Arabic, otherwise you can't understand your orders... |
Baadache oversaw the structure set up to take in foreign volunteers arriving in Peshawar, Pakistan, across the Afghan border, according to the prosecution. |