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| Europe |
| Danish Teenager Sentenced in Terror Plot |
| 2007-02-16 |
| Judges throw out jury convictions on 3 others A Danish court on Thursday convicted a 17-year-old defendant on terror charges and sentenced him to seven years in prison for involvement in a botched plot to blow up a target in Europe. Three other suspects in the case were cleared of offenses. The court found Abdul Basit Abu-Lifa guilty of involvement in a terror plot uncovered in Bosnia in October 2005 with the arrest of two men allegedly preparing to carry out a terror attack. The pair, Swedish national Mirsad Bektasevic and Abdulkadir Cesur, a Turk living in Denmark, were convicted by a Bosnian court last month of planning an attack aimed at forcing foreign troops to pull out of Iraq and Afghanistan. The exact target of the plot remains unclear. In the Danish case, police arrested Abu-Lifa and the three others on Oct. 27, 2005, after a tip from Bosnian police. Investigators used mobile phone records and Internet chats to link the defendants in Denmark to the Bosnian plot. A jury in the Eastern High Court said Thursday there was enough evidence to prove that all four defendants were involved in the plot, but the three-judge panel disagreed and overturned the verdicts against all but Abu-Lifa. Under Danish law, judges have the right to overturn any decision made by the jury. "It is very, very rare that this happens," said Thorkild Hoeyer, the attorney for one of the freed defendants, Elias Ibn Hsain. Prosecutors had demanded at least eight years in prison for Abu-Lifa, a Danish citizen of Palestinian descent, but the judges gave him a seven-year sentence, citing his young age. Imad Ali Jaloud, who prosecutors said was the leader of the group, refused to speak to media as he left the courtroom. Another acquitted defendant, Adnan Avdic, |
| Posted by:ryuge |
| #5 A Bosnian muzzi fails to kill anybody in Denmark, and nevertheless goes to jail. A Bosnian muzzi kills 5 in Uta, and this isn't considered terrorism. |
| Posted by: gromgoru 2007-02-16 11:18 |
| #4 Abu-Lifa, a Danish citizen of Palestinian descent You can take the boy outta Palestine, but you can't take the Palestine outta the boy... |
| Posted by: tu3031 2007-02-16 11:14 |
| #3 Why am I not surprised that a panel of European judges would throw out the verdicts of the jury on the majority of the accused terrorists and free them? |
| Posted by: ryuge 2007-02-16 11:08 |
| #2 Why am I not surprised he was not hanged for attempted mass murder, treason and apprehended insurrection. |
| Posted by: Excalibur 2007-02-16 09:56 |
| #1 Why am I not surprised his name isn't Rasmussen or Larsen or... |
| Posted by: eLarson 2007-02-16 09:46 |