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| Europe |
| France to open trial of three men in Tunisian synagogue bombing |
| 2009-01-05 |
| Two alleged Al-Qaeda kingpins and a third man go on trial in Paris on Monday, accused of plotting the 2002 suicide bombing of a historic synagogue in Tunisia that left 21 dead. Held at the US Guantanamo prison camp, Khalid Sheikh Mohammad will be tried in absentia on terrorism charges but German national Christian Ganczarski and Tunisian Walid Nawar, the bomber's brother, will be in court. Sheikh Mohammad, who has confessed to being the architect of the September 11, 2001 attacks, is said to be Al-Qaeda's military commander responsible for all foreign operations. The trial before a Paris court specializing in terror offenses will focus much of its attention on Ganczarski, a German of Polish origin who converted to Islam and allegedly played a leading role in Al-Qaeda's network in Europe. The trio are charged in France with "complicity in attempted murder in relation to a terrorist enterprise" and face a maximum sentence of 20 years in jail if convicted of the April 11, 2002, attack. On that day, suicide bomber Nizar Nawar detonated a fuel tanker rigged with explosives in front of the Ghriba Synagogue on the Tunisian island of Djerba, killing 14 German tourists, five Tunisians and two French nationals. Nawar is alleged to have contacted Ganczarski and Sheikh Mohammad shortly before the bombing in Tunisia. Al-Qaeda has claimed responsibility for the attack. French and German investigators also charge that Ganczarski traveled several times between 1999 and 2001 to the Pakistani-Afghan border to meet Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. The alleged top operative, who was reportedly in regular contact with Sheikh Mohammad, stands accused of putting his considerable expertise in radio communications and web production at the service of Al-Qaeda and helping recruit members in Europe, according to investigators. Western intelligence agencies managed to track down Ganczarski after having intercepted a call from the Djerba suicide bomber's cell phone and he was arrested in June 2003 upon his arrival in France from Saudi Arabia. Ganczarski is said to have given Nawar the green light to carry out the attack during the phone call. Tunisian national Walid Nawar is accused of having helped his brother carry out the Djerba bombing, notably by purchasing in France the cell phone from which he called Ganczarski and Sheikh Mohammad. The bomber's uncle, Belgacem Nawar, was convicted in Tunisia in June 2006 of involvement in the attack and sentenced to 20 years. The uncle was found guilty of helping his nephew build the bomb - a large fuel container and detonator - inside the truck. The trial in Paris opens one month after Sheikh Mohammad appeared before a US military tribunal in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba to answer charges that he was the mastermind behind the September 11, 2001, attacks in the United States. The Paris trial is scheduled to end on February 6. Two other suspects in the attack - Jouar Suissi and Tarek Hdia - are to stand trial before a separate Paris court in February on minor charges of violating immigration rules and possession of fake documents. |
| Posted by:Fred |