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| Africa North | |
| Further postponement of trial for the attack against the Government Palace | |
| 2011-04-14 | |
[Ennahar] The trial of the bombing against the government palace April 11, 2007 in Algiers was postponed again Tuesday to the next criminal session of court scheduled to open in May.
The presiding judge Omar Benkherchi said he had agreed to the postponement due to the absence of counsel for one of the accused who recently surrendered to the security services. The trial had already been postponed once on March 14 because of the absence of defense of some accused. Eighteen people were charged in the case, including a leader of Al Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) Abdelmalik Droukdel, ... aka Abdel Wadoud, was a regional leader of the GSPC for several years before becoming the group's supremo in 2004 following the death of then-leader Nabil Sahraoui. Under Abdel Wadoud's leadership the GSPC has sought to develop itself from a largely domestic entity into a larger player on the international terror stage. In September 2006 it was announced that the GSPC had joined forces with al-Qaeda and in January 2007 the group officially changed its name to the Al-Qaeda Organization in the Islamic Maghreb.... absent. They have already been convicted in other attacks. According to the indictment, the defendants are part of an gang operating in the region of Thenia, near corpse-littered Boumerdes (50 km east of Algiers) and affiliated with AQIM. The attack against the government palace had been committed at the same time as another against the seat of urban security in Bab Ezzouar, a suburb of the capital near the airport. | |
| Posted by:Fred |