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| Europe |
| Dutch prosecutors urge conviction for repeat terrorism suspect |
| 2006-11-04 |
| Prosecutors urged judges Friday to convict six Muslims of conspiring to commit a terrorist attack against Dutch politicians, in the case of an alleged group with close connections to the murderer of filmmaker Theo van Gogh. Prosecutors say Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende and former lawmaker Ayaan Hirsi Ali — Van Gogh's creative partner — may have been targets. The prime suspect in the conspiracy case, Samir Azzouz, 20, was acquitted in April on similar charges of plotting to attack a politician or a national landmark, in a major embarrassment for prosecutors. His lawyers say he is innocent of any wrongdoing, and his re-arrest several months after his release is a matter of harassment by overzealous Dutch authorities. Alexander van Dam said the April acquittal was flawed and evidence against Azzouz is much stronger this time. Evidence includes a videotape of an alleged suicide message Azzouz filmed, bomb-making manuals and radical Islamist propaganda. It also includes a tapped telephone call between Azzouz and a convicted terrorism suspect hinting that an attack was imminent. "Keep watching TV — something is about to happen," Azzouz said. In addition, two alleged members of the group — a couple who are to be tried separately — testified directly against Azzouz and the others. "No other conclusion can be distilled out of the evidence than that this group was planning the terrorist murder of one or more politicians by means of a weapon or by detonating an explosive," Van Dam said. Outside the courtroom, defense lawyer Michiel Pestman said the prosecution's case depended on the two witnesses, Lahbib and Hanan Bachar, who he said were themselves suspects in the case. "We think they are very unreliable," he said. Since Azzouz's earlier acquittal, the government has enacted laws making membership in a terrorist organization a crime and outlawing "recruiting" for a terrorist network. Azzouz is charged with both. Pestman said the suspects were friends, "not an organization," and that prosecutors had failed to link several weapons introduced as evidence to any of the suspects. Speaking in his own defense Tuesday, Azzouz said the videotaped suicide message was meant as a joke, and he would never kill somebody in the Netherlands, because under his interpretation of Islam that would be forbidden. Prosecutors could demand sentences of up to 20 years. A verdict is scheduled for Nov. 23. In Azzouz's earlier acquittal, judges ruled he was planning an attack. However, they found that because he had not picked a specific target yet he lacked criminal intent. In addition, bomb-making materials found in his possession were too amateurish to explode. Azzouz attended prayer meetings in cult-like conditions at the home of Mohammed Bouyeri, who was convicted of Van Gogh's Nov. 2, 2004, killing and sentenced to life in prison. Bouyeri left an open letter stuck onto Van Gogh's chest with a knife threatening Hirsi Ali and other politicians. Later, Bouyeri was one of nine men convicted of membership in a terrorist organization known as the Hofstad network. Azzouz was also caught with bomb-making materials in October 2003, along with four members of the Hofstad group. All were released then without prosecution because they were arrested on a tip from the secret service. As a result, parliament approved legislation allowing secret service evidence in criminal trials. |
| Posted by:ryuge |