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| Europe |
| Belgium orders trial in Afghan assassination |
| 2003-02-14 |
| A Belgian court on Friday ordered 12 alleged members of a counterfeit passport ring to stand trial on charges of providing false documents used by the killers of the Afghan anti-Taliban leader Ahmed Shah Massood. It's only been a year and a half. What's the rush? Massood was killed two days before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks by two suicide bombers who posed as journalists and traveled on false Belgian passports. Authorities believe the assassins were sent by Osama bin Laden to remove Massood. The alleged leader of the passport ring, Tarek Maaroufi, is suspected of having links to al-Qaida and will face charges that include recruiting for a foreign military force, prosecutors said. Maaroufi, who is of Tunisian origin, was arrested in Belgium on December 2001. Maaroufi is also a suspect in another al-Qaida-linked case centered on Nizar Trabelsi, a former professional soccer player from Tunisia who is suspected of planning to bomb the U.S. embassy in Paris and a Belgian military base used by American forces. It being Belgium, the guy will probably get a sentence of no TV for a week, if he's not let off... |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |