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Belgium considering prosecuting Moroccan jihadis for 3/11, Casablanca
A Belgian court will decide next week whether to put 14 suspects on trial on charges of belonging to a group blamed for the Madrid and Casablanca bombings, which killed more than 200 people.The court will base its decision on the findings of Examining Magistrate Daniel Fransen, whose investigation led to a series of arrests which began last year. The suspects face charges of belonging to a cell of the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group (GICM), providing false papers and other logistical help to members elsewhere in Europe. Fransen's investigation has already led to the arrest and extradition of Youssef Belhadj to Spain, where he was wanted on suspicion of being the al Qaeda spokesman who claimed responsibility for the Madrid bombings on a videotape in 2004. But the federal prosecutor's office said the 14 suspects who may stand trial in Brussels were not implicated in any attack. "It does not concern Madrid or Casablanca," the office spokeswoman Lieve Pellens said on Friday. Known by its French acronym, the GICM is listed by the United States as a terrorist group whose aim is to establish an Islamic state in Morocco and support al Qaeda's struggle against Western countries. Some of the GICM's members are suspects in the Madrid bombings that killed 190 people. The case of the 14 suspects would be Belgium's third prominent anti-terrorist trial since the Sept. 11 attacks led to a crackdown on Islamist militant networks in Western countries. It would also come under tough new laws in Belgium that explicitly criminalise terrorist activities. Belgium's last case led to the October 2004 conviction of Islamist militants for ties to groups supporting al Qaeda. A previous trial resulted in the jailing of a former professional soccer player, Tunisian Nizar ben Abdelaziz Trabelsi, for plotting to blow up a military base. Posted by: Dan Darling 2005-08-12 |
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