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Dutch court acquits Hofstadgroep suspects
 A Dutch appeal court acquitted six suspected members of an Islamist terrorist group on Wednesday, saying the prosecutor had failed to prove such an organisation existed. A seventh suspect, Jason Walters, who in 2004 injured five policemen with a hand grenade at his arrest, was given a 15-year prison sentence as before, but for attempted murder, rather than for being part of a terrorist group. The Hofstadgroep (Hague group) has insufficient organisational substance to conclude it was an organisation, the court ruling said, adding that the prosecutor had failed to prove the suspects made up a terrorist group. The prosecutor had said the group had planned terrorist attacks and was formed around Dutch-Moroccan Mohammed Bouyeri, who was sentenced for the murder of filmmaker Theo van Gogh in 2004. Some of the suspects were also Dutch citizens of Moroccan descent. They had all denied the charges and had appealed a ruling by a lower court in 2006 sentencing them to up to fifteen years each for forming a terrorist group. Posted by: Fred 2008-01-25 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=221268 |