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Moroccan al-Qaeda sent back to Saudi Arabia
Gee, I feel so much more secure knowing theyâre in Prince Nayefâs hands ...Three Saudis convicted in an alleged Al Qaeda plot to attack US and British warships were being sent home from Morocco to serve out their 10-year prison sentences, a security official said Saturday. Saudi authorities had requested that the militants be returned from Morocco, where they were arrested, convicted and sentenced. They were due into Riyadh later Saturday aboard a private plane. Zouhair Hilal Tabiti, 26; Hilal Jaber El Assiri, 31; and Abdellah Msafer El Ghamidi, 22; were convicted in February â nine months after they were arrested in the alleged plot. Moroccan officials said the three had planned to sail an explosives-laden dinghy from Morocco into the Strait of Gibraltar to attack American and British ships. The plot recalled the October 2000 suicide attack on the destroyer USS Cole that killed 17 sailors in a Yemeni port. The three men were convicted of attempted murder, attempted sabotage with the use of explosives and belonging to a criminal organisation. They also were accused of plotting to blow up a cafe in Marrakech, a major tourist destination in Morocco, and planning to attack tourist buses in the Muslim North African kingdom. All three admitted under interrogation that they had been trained in the use of weapons and explosives at Al Qaeda camps in Afghanistan and Pakistan, but their defence lawyers had argued Moroccan authorities used torture to extract the confessions. Moroccan police are believed to have thwarted the plot with the help of information provided by suspected Al Qaeda operatives held at the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Posted by: Dan Darling 2004-01-12 |
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