Posted on 04/22/2005 9:59:44 PM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
Madrid puts 41 on trial for links to 9/11 attacks
By Leslie Crawford in Madrid
Published: April 21 2005 17:30 | Last updated: April 22 2005 13:38
Spain put global terrorism in the dock on Friday, with the mass trial of 41 men accused of being accomplices in the September 11 2001 terrorist attacks in the US.
They are also accused of belonging to al-Qaeda, the Islamist terrorist network.
The trial, which is being held in a purpose-built, high-security court on the outskirts of Madrid, will be the first in Spain to address the threat of global terrorism. It will set an important legal precedent, particularly for the forthcoming trial of Islamist militants charged over the train bombings in Madrid in March last year.
Public prosecutors allege that some of the defendants charged with setting up al-Qaeda's Spanish cell, and with providing logistical support for the attacks against the US, also had links with the perpetrators of the Madrid bombings.
Only 24 of the defendants indicted by Baltazar Garzón, Spain's top anti-terrorist judge, will be present at the trial. Some of the accused, including Osama bin Laden, the al-Qaeda leader, remain in hiding. Others, such as Mamoun Darkanzali, a German of Syrian origin, have appealed against extradition to Spain.
Germany's constitutional court is currently studying Mr Darkanzali's case, which hinges on whether the European common arrest warrant contravenes a German law banning the extradition of citizens who have not been charged with crimes in Germany. Mr Darkanzali's appeal underscores the difficulties encountered by investigating magistrates such as Mr Garzón, who must grapple with an international terrorist network that transcends national juris-dictions.
The defendants include Imad Eddin Barakat Yarkas, a Spaniard of Syrian origin, who has been charged with being the leader of al-Qaeda in Spain. Mr Barakat is accused of recruiting volunteers and sending them to al-Qaeda training camps in Indonesia, Bosnia and Afghanistan. He and others are also accused of providing logistical support for the suicide pilots who took part in the attacks in the US.
Spanish police have established that Mohamed Atta, one of the suicide pilots, went to Madrid and Salou, a beach resort south of Barcelona, in the summer before the attacks. Mr Barakat has denied the charges, and any links with the Madrid bombings. Defence lawyers say they are worried that because of the Madrid bombings, the defendants will not be given a fair trial.
“Judges are under immense political pressure to hand out guilty verdicts because Spain has to be seen to be doing something in the wake of the train bombings,” says José Luis Galán, a lawyer defending Taysir Alouny Kate, a journalist working for the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera television network, who has been charged with belonging to a terrorist organisation.
Spanish judges have three decades of experience in terrorism cases related to Eta, the Basque separatist group that has killed more than 800 people. But Eta is a hierarchical group, whereas al-Qaeda is a loose network that will take prosecutors into uncharted legal territory.
Judges will have to decide whether defendants accused of petty criminal offences, such as forging passports and credit card fraud, knowingly took part in a broader terrorist conspiracy. Even the definition of terrorism characterised in Spain as the attempt to subvert the constitutional order might have to be revisited to take account of al-Qaeda's transnational activities.
Wow.
That was fast.
Not.
I'm way too immersed in Freeper slang. For a second I thought they were trying Bush senior for this. I had a Hank Hill 'What the hell?' reaction.
Worst part is I figured new Spanish socialist govt was probably arrogant and petty enough to pull something like this.
These things take time - if the terrorist networks were easy to spot and dismantle we wouldn't have had 9/11.
Since they caved once, what makes Spain think they won't be targeted with massive waves of terrorist attacks until they let these murderers go free?
That is the problem with blackmail and capitulation. It doesn't stop.
Let the buggers rot!
I don't know much (actually it's more like zero) about the Spanish legal system. However, a trial with 41 defendants seems to be more than a little unwieldy.
While each defendant may have had some elements of the crime in common, keeping it all straight for the judge(s) has got to be tough. Are their 41 Pedro Masons jumping up like gophers shouting objections?
Reminds me of a trial in Egypt a long time ago, where assassins of Sadat screamed and hollered while their verdict was read.
LOL
Pedro Masons....funny.
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