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| Europe |
| Appeals Court Orders Retrial Of Suspected Islamic Terrorists |
| 2006-10-12 |
| Milan, 12 Oct. (AKI) - Italy's highest appeals court, the Cassazione, has ordered the retrial of three terror suspects who were acquitted in a first trial and then on appeal on charges they recruited militants and suicide bombers to send to Iraq. Moroccan national Mohammed Daki along with Ali Toumi and Maher Bouyahia of Tunisia were judged not guilty of international terrorism. Daki - who had admitted ties with seven members of an al-Qaeda cell in Hamburg linked to the 9/11 attacks - was repatriated to Morocco last year while the other two were jailed on separate charges. The Cassazione annulled the previous sentenes for "flawed reasoning" in the high profile cases. In January 2005, Milan judge Clementina Forleo made headlines in Italy when she acquitted the three men questioning evidence of their terror links based on phone tapped conversations and police questioning of militants in Iraq. The judge was widely accused of bias for her sentence's motivation in which she set apart guerrilla and terrorism and said attacks against military targets in Iraq could not be likened to terror attacks on civilians. Appeals judge Rosario Caiazzo brought her sentence a step further when he confirmed Forleo's decision the following November. Though Caiazzo recognized that the three men were "clearly recruiting suicide bombers" in his sentence he said the three could not be condemned on international terrorism charges as it was possible to convitc "only those targeting civilians" otherwise any sort of wartime military action could be labelled as terrorism. Speaking from Casablanca, Daki proclaimed his innocence on Wednesday and claimed the Cassazione had annulled the previous sentnces "because I am not powerful," in an interview with Italy's main paper Corriere della Sera. Milan anti-terror prosecutor Armando Spataro praised for his part the high court's decision to order a retrial as it "confirmed that the previous sentences were wrong." |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #1 That's interesting. Could we do this in the US? Or would it trip over double jepoardy? |
| Posted by: Jackal 2006-10-12 11:39 |