BRUSSELS,
September 30 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - A Tunisian al-Qaeda
suspect was jailed for ten years Tuesday, September 30, for his alleged
part in a foiled attack on a U.S. military base around the time of the
September 11 hijackings.
Nizar
Trabelsi, a former footballer and the chief suspect among the defendants
who were tried in Belgium in May and June this year, was convicted of
plotting an attack on the Kleine Brogel army base in northeast Belgium.
During
the five-week court case, he confessed to having plotted the attack on
the base where U.S. troops are stationed, Agence France-Presse (AFP)
reported.
The
suspects, whose trial was held amid unprecedented security, faced
charges linked to attempted attacks and the assassination of Afghan
anti-Taliban commander Ahmad Shah Masood in 2001.
Federal
prosecutor Bernard Michel demanded a 10-year jail term for Trabelsi,
while seeking between 18 months to 10 years for his co-accused, some of
whom allegedly helped him in the Belgian plot while others are said to
have recruited volunteers for Afghanistan.
The
relatively modest prison terms sought are due to the fact that Belgium
has no specific anti-terrorism laws - although Belgian Prime Minister
Guy Verhofstadt recently unveiled plans for laws to harden up sentences.
‘Father
Figure’
 |
|
Trabelsi
confessed to having plotted the attack on the U.S. military base
|
Former
drug addict Trabelsi, who used to play for German league side Fortuna
Duesseldorf and who went to Afghanistan to "live out his
faith" in 2001, is the only defendant who has pleaded guilty in the
case.
He
said that in Afghanistan he was "traumatized by the fate granted to
Muslims in the world" and said he found in al-Qaeda head Osama bin
Laden a father figure whom he had always sought.
Sent
to Belgium in the summer of 2001 by the terrorist organization after
having undergone explosives training, he organized the purchase of
bomb-making chemicals for the Kleine Brogel plot.
The
plan was for him to blow himself up outside the canteen of the military
base, at the wheel of a truck packed with a ton of explosives. Only his
arrest in his Brussels apartment on September 13, 2001 foiled the
attack, according to prosecutors.
Trabelsi's
lawyers argued in his defense that he had not actually started to put
the plans into action, and called for leniency also because their client
has since renounced violence.
"Terrorism
has destroyed the liberty and freedom of individuals, Judge Claire de
Gryse said.
"These
acts must be sanctioned most severely."
Defense
attorney Yves de Quyve said the court had ignored the remorse Trabelsi
had shown during the trial and had made an example of him after the U.S.
terror attacks.
The
other main charges in the Brussels trial involved the recruitment of
volunteers in Europe to travel to Afghanistan, notably using false
passports.
A
second Tunisian - Tarek Maroufi - was sentenced to six years in prison
for organizing the recruitment of al-Qaeda volunteers in Europe.
Another
16 suspects - who prosecutors said were part of a "spider's
web" of radicals - received shorter sentences for a series of
lesser offences, while five defendants were acquitted.
The
case is being closely watched by prosecutors all over Europe, and the
verdicts will have implications far beyond the Brussels courtroom, the
BBC NewsOnline said.
Most
of the defendants claimed innocence and said some of their contacts were
maintained out of a sense of international religious brotherhood, not an
attempt to commit crime or terrorism.
The
Belgian authorities decided to combine the bomb plot and al-Qaeda
recruitment cases in one huge anti-terrorism trial - the country's
biggest ever.
The
trial was held under tight security. Riot police were on standby outside
the court, but there were no protests or demonstrations.
