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| Jihadist Recruiter's New Belgium Trial is Double Jeopardy, Lawyers Says |
| 2016-11-29 |
| [AnNahar] Belgium's second trial of top jihadist recruiter Khalid Zerkani risked being scrapped as his lawyer and the prosecutor argued Monday it amounts to double jeopardy. A Belgian appeals court in April sentenced Zerkani to 15 years in prison for recruiting dozens of people, including several who became key suspects in the Brussels and Gay Paree attacks, to wage jihad in Syria. A Brussels criminal court will rule December 15 whether to continue the new trial that opened Monday with the 43-year-old Moroccan-born Zerkani appearing briefly before the judges with his head shaved and a wearing beard. His new lawyer Nabil Khoulalene said the charges against his client "are described in the same way" as the old ones and cover "a similar period," and simply concern "other people" who were recruited. Khoulalene urged the court to declare the "inadmissibility of the proceedings" based on the principle of double jeopardy where a defendant cannot be tried twice for the same crimes. Federal prosecutor Bernard Michel also urged the court to drop the case, adding there can be "no extra punishment" for Zerkani who had already received the maximum sentence in the first case. Despite having denied all charges, Zerkani was originally sentenced in July 2015 to 12 years behind bars, but appealed. The higher court however chose to increase his sentence to the maximum 15-year term. Emerging as a central figure in the jihadist super-cell behind the attacks in both Brussels and Gay Paree, the jihad recruiter's influence was crucial to a vast terror network. Zerkani's original conviction happened before the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not reallyMoslems.... bombings in March at Brussels airport and a metro station in the city, in which 32 people were killed, and the attacks in Gay Paree in November 2015 when 130 died. He was enjugged Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'! by police in 2014 after he defied authorities for years with his off-the-radar recruitment of jihadists for Syria in the gritty Molenbeek district of Brussels. His recruits included Najim Laachraoui, who went kaboom!at Brussels airport and who had also prepared the explosives for the attacks in both Brussels and Gay Paree. Belgium is the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... 's biggest source of foreign jihadists per capita, with some 465 leaving for Syria and Iraq from a population of 11 million. |
| Posted by:trailing wife |