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Five in Italy Convicted of al-Qaida Ties
Five North African men were convicted Monday of ties to Osama bin Ladenâs terrorist network and sentenced to four-to-eight year prison terms. The defendants were found guilty of links to a cell that sent would-be terrorists to Afghanistan, Tunisia and Algeria, the Italian news agency ANSA reported. However, they were cleared of charges of aiding and abetting clandestine immigration. A charge of trafficking in arms was dropped. Anti-terrorism investigators have described Italy as an important logistical base for the al-Qaida network, especially for procuring false identity documents and finding recruits for training in bin Ladenâs camps. The stiffest sentence - eight years - went to Abdelkader Mahmoud Es Sayed, an Egyptian who allegedly organized the Milan cell. He was tried in absentia, although investigators say he may have died fighting for bin Laden in Afghanistan. If he was a organizer, I doubt it. Heâs most likely running another cell somewhere under another name. ANSA reported that the court handed down a 7 1/2 year sentence to Abdelhalim Hafed Remadna, an Algerian arrested in 2001 as he tried to board a train in Milan, two months after the Sept. 11 attacks. Police said he had phony Italian residency papers and was trying to leave the country. Like the other defendants, Remadna had links to a Milan mosque and Islamic culture center that the U.S. government has called the main al-Qaida station house in Europe. Iâll wager the Italians have this mosque under close observation. A librarian at the culture institute, Yassine Chekkouri of Morocco, was sentenced to four years. Nabil Benattia, a Tunisian arrested shortly after Remadna, got five years. Another Tunisian, Lased Ben Henin, who was arrested in Germany in October 2001 and extradited to Italy, got six years, ANSA said. Defense lawyers challenged the sentences. Of course they did, thatâs what they do. Posted by: Steve 2004-02-02 |
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