Al-Qaeda Suspect Jailed Over 9/11

Al-Qaeda suspect jailed over 9/11

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4281808.stm

9/26/2005

A Spanish court has jailed a man accused of heading a Spanish al-Qaeda cell for 27 years for helping to organise the 9/11 attacks in the US.

Imad Yarkas was jailed along with 17 other men convicted on charges of aiding al-Qaeda.

Two others accused of involvement in the attacks were among six cleared in Europe's biggest terror trial.

A journalist for Arabic TV network al-Jazeera was also jailed for seven years for collaborating with al-Qaeda.

The 17 men convicted were sentenced to between six and 11 years in jail for a range of offences.

But the judges dismissed evidence of recorded telephone calls used by the prosecution, saying they were misleading and often based on misunderstandings of the Arabic language.

The case pre-dated the Madrid bombing in March 2004 that killed 191 people and has been seen as a testing ground before the trial of those suspected of involvement in the bombing begins next year.

'Meeting with ringleader'
The defendants included Syrian-born Imad Yarkas, the alleged head of an al-Qaeda cell in Spain.

Yarkas, 42, was accused of heading a cell that allegedly provided funding and logistics for the people who planned the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Along with co-defendant Driss Chebli, he is said to have set up a meeting in June 2001, which was allegedly attended by at least one of the attack ringleaders, Mohammed Atta.

The third, Ghasoub al-Abrash Ghalyoun, was accused of filming the twin towers and other targets, material which was passed on to al-Qaeda operatives.

Yarkas has dismissed the trial as a farce, denied knowledge of al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden and condemned the 11 September attacks.

'Little evidence'
The other defendants - mostly men born in Syria or Morocco - were charged with belonging to a terrorist group, but not of planning for 11 September.

They faced sentences of nine to 21 years if convicted.

Among them was a journalist from the Arabic TV station al-Jazeera, Tayssir Alouni, who interviewed Bin Laden after the attacks, jailed for seven years for collaboration.

Throughout the trial defence lawyers argued that the case consisted of doubts and suspicions but little concrete evidence.

All the defendants were part of a group of 41 suspects indicted by Judge Baltasar Garzon.

Judge Garzon has said that Spain was a key base for hiding, helping, recruiting and financing al-Qaeda members in the lead-up to the attacks on New York and Washington.