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News, October, 2005Macro Al Qaeda cell trial ends in Madrid27 September. A major trial concluded yesterday investigating the Spanish cell of Al Qaeda which existed around the time of the 9/11 attacks in the USA. Among the 24 accused was IMAD EDDIN BARAKAT, 'Abu Dahdah', taken to have been the leader of the cell and contact person with Bin Laden. The prosecutor demanded 73.000 years, but the judge gave him 27. 8 were released and 17 others found guilty of various crimes under Spanish law such as membership of or collaboration with a terrorist organisation and apology for terrorism. Only one Spaniard was accused, José 'Yusuf' Galán. He got 9 years. Taysir Alony, a journalist with Al Jazeera, who had interviewd Bin Laden just before the invasion of Afghanistan, was sentenced to 7 years for collaboration with a terrorist organisation. Al Jazeera will appeal on his behalf. Reporters Sans Frontieres is shocked by this decision. This trial had nothing directly to do with the Madrid bombings of 11th March, 2004, although it is clear that the suspects may have also been indirectly linked with the 3/11 bombers. Likewise, the trial was seen as a test case regarding what is acceptable in a terrorism trial. Unlawful phone tapping evidence was rejected, for example. The 3/11 trial is expected to come to court early in 2006. On Sunday police also completed the extradition of a key suspect in the Madrid bombings. Moroccan Abdelmajid Bouchar was arrested in Belgrade in June and has now been handed over to prosecuting judge Juan del Olmo and placed in solitary confinement awaiting declaration this week. He is believed to have been in the Leganés flat, but escaped before the mass suicide following the bombings. Click for another BBC report Sources: TVE, El Mundo, BBC |