| Submit your comments on this article |
| Terror Networks & Islam |
| Fighting to make al-Qaeda prosecutions stick |
| 2005-08-29 |
| Prosecutors in Europe and the US continue to face hurdles in achieving convictions in civilian courts of alleged al-Qaeda suspects, despite the recent jailing in Germany of a Moroccan man linked to the September 11 terrorist attacks. Defence lawyers for Mounir al-Motassadeq, jailed for seven years for membership of the Hamburg terrorist cell run by the September 11 suicide pilots, last week appealed against the verdict, raising the prospect of another trial. Kai Hirschmann, terrorism expert at a security studies centre in Essen, western Germany, said Mr Motassadeq's conviction had been a breakthrough because the court had recognised that ideological support for the Islamic jihad, or holy war, was sufficient basis for prosecution on charges of membership of a terrorist cell. Yet he said he was "unsure the conviction will hold in the appeals court". A ruling is not expected until next year. Mr Motassadeq was in 2003 the first man to be convicted for helping plan September 11, but his first conviction was overturned a year later by the appeals court. Prosecutors in Spain and Italy have for similar reasons struggled to achieve convictions of al-Qaeda suspects. In the US lawmakers and judges have made only scant progress in devising rules to allow for the civilian prosecution of suspected al-Qaeda suspects. Zacarias Moussaoui, thought by US officials to be the intended 20th hijacker in the September 11 attacks, pleaded guilty in April to six counts of conspiring with the hijackers after the courts finally rejected his demand to subpoena al-Qaeda detainees in his defence. He is due to be sentenced next year. But the Moussaoui case, along with the life sentence given to shoe bomber Richard Reid, remains among only a handful of cases in which Washington has been willing to use the civil courts to prosecute those with clear links to the al-Qaeda network. The US Justice Department has fought to keep José Padilla, a US citizen suspected of planning a "dirty bomb" attack in the US, in military custody rather than risking a prosecution before the civil courts. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |