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| Europe |
| The ‘black sheep’ in anti-terror war |
| 2008-02-09 |
| The Anvers Court of Appeals on Thursday acquitted seven members of the leftist Revolutionary People's Liberation Party/Front (DHKP/C), including the group's leader, and sentenced three others to suspended sentences for unauthorized possession of firearms and false identity papers. All three, including a suspect wanted in Turkey in connection with a 1996 assassination of a prominent Turkish industrialist, were then released, considering the time they had already spent in jail. Their arrests in Belgium followed the discovery of an arms cache on the Belgian coast in 1999. The judge ruled, however, that the group had no intention of committing terrorist acts in Belgium and added it was not up to the court to assess how the suspects felt about terrorism in general. While acquitting the DHKP/C members of terrorism charges, the court also declined to take into consideration their terrorist activities in other countries. "If the court acts on the basis of the presumption that the DHKP/C's terrorist activities in Turkey, Germany or the Netherlands do not affect the trial in Belgium, it is certain that such an attitude is in violation of the basic principles of the international fight against terrorism, including the relevant UN Security Council decisions," read a statement from the Turkish Foreign Ministry yesterday. It said the ruling will contradict EU laws and EU Council decisions designating the DHKP/C a terrorist group. "It is certain that such rulings will encourage terrorist groups," said the statement. It also implied that Turkey might take the ruling to the European Court of Human Rights, saying Ankara will look into ways to appeal. The DHKP/C, responsible for many terrorist attacks in Turkey, has been on the EU's terror list since May 2002. EU Council officials, contacted by Today's Zaman, declined to comment on the ruling, saying they were still expecting further information on its content. An official, speaking on condition of anonymity, made clear that the decision on what measures to be taken toward a particular group designated as a terrorist organization by the EU was up to individual member states. But if a member state opposes the designation of a group as a terrorist organization, it is expected to bring forward its objections to the council, said the official, adding, however, that there has been no such request from Belgian authorities. The decision was met with criticism in the Belgian media as well. Newspapers presented a hypothetical situation for Belgium in which al-Qaeda terrorists, after committing many acts of violence elsewhere in the world -- but none in Belgian territory -- come to the country and ask for asylum. Thursday’s decision is the latest shocking development in the course of the lengthy trial process of the DHKP/C members. It came at the end of a retrial, after Belgium’s highest court had ordered a retrial in April of last year, saying that one of the judges handling the first trial in 2006 appeared not to have been impartial. Fehriye Erdal, one of the three DHKP/C terrorists sentenced to suspended imprisonment in the case, is wanted in Turkey for involvement in the 1996 murder of industrialist Özdemir Sabancý. In the 2006 ruling, she was sentenced to four years in prison, but, in a development that outraged Turkey, she escaped before her conviction despite being under surveillance by Belgian security forces and is still on the run. The DHKP/C was also considered a terrorist group in the 2006 decision. “I am terrified,” said Köksal Toptan, speaker of the Turkish Parliament, of Thursday’s decision. “It is absolutely terrifying that a group designated as a terrorist organization all across the world is not seen as a terrorist organization.” Toptan continued: “Terrorism needs to be combated across the globe. Otherwise the entire world will lose the fight against it. Such a decision coming from a court in Belgium, a central EU state, means encouragement of terrorism.” According to Toptan, a mentality that lets people walk free of the court because they have not committed any crime in Belgium cannot be part of any global effort to counter terrorism. “No one would feel they have to help others in the fight against terrorism.” The decision appears to be a blow to the Belgian government, which has been pressing for a tougher stance against terrorism. Interior Minister Patrick Dewael, who earlier lashed out at the DHKP/C as a terrorist group, was silent after Thursday’s ruling, saying he would respect the judiciary’s decisions. Reports said Belgian intelligence and security organizations, eager to pursue a tougher fight against terrorist groups, were disappointed because they are concerned this would make Belgium look like a “backyard” of terrorist organizations. |
| Posted by:tipper |
| #4 Belgium will get what they ask for. |
| Posted by: gorb 2008-02-09 07:37 |
| #3 a mentality that lets people walk free of the court because they have not committed any crime in Belgium cannot be part of any global effort to counter terrorism. “No one would feel they have to help others in the fight against terrorism.” A judge's ruling. Wotta shock. |
| Posted by: Bobby 2008-02-09 07:27 |
| #2 Strange - 2nd attempt worked. |
| Posted by: 3dc 2008-02-09 01:20 |
| #1 Forbidden You don't have permission to access /tz-web/detaylar.do on this server |
| Posted by: 3dc 2008-02-09 01:19 |