Posted on 05/04/2004 1:26:49 PM PDT by knighthawk
BERLIN (Reuters) - A Tunisian man, said by prosecutors to have trained with al Qaeda and met Osama bin Laden, has gone on trial accused of plotting to bomb Jewish and U.S. targets in Germany.
Ihsan Garnaoui, 33, denies charges of trying to form a terrorist group to set off a series of bombs around the time of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March last year.
According to the indictment, he entered Germany illegally in January 2003 to start planning the attacks, for which he had trained at an al Qaeda camp from July 2001.
"There the accused first learned battle training and how to produce and handle explosives and weapons. After that he was active as a trainer for al Qaeda. During this time he made the personal acquaintance of Osama bin Laden," said the charge sheet, read to him in court on Tuesday.
The bearded defendant, sitting in a glass box behind his lawyers, followed the proceedings closely and conferred frequently the chance to respond to the accusations in person.
His lawyer Margarete von Galen said the evidence was scanty. She added that the fact that half a dozen other alleged plotters had not been charged suggested that the case against her client was an "experiment".
MILITANT TRIALS
Garnaoui's is the latest in a series of high-profile trials of alleged Islamist militants in Germany but he is not accused of any link with the September 11 attacks on the United States which were led by Arab students living in Hamburg.
On leaving Afghanistan in November 2002, prosecutors say he returned to Germany via Pakistan, South Africa, Lesotho and Belgium, and began recruiting like-minded militants at a Berlin mosque, focusing on students and asylum-seekers.
He started training them in a "fitness room" at the mosque, but authorities there refused Garnaoui's requests to endorse his plans via a decree or "fatwa", and later expelled him, according to the indictment.
It said Garnaoui sought chemicals to make bombs, acquired circuit diagrams and bought mobile phones and watches with alarms to serve as timers.
In South Africa he had obtained binoculars with a built-in digital camera in order to spy out potential targets. The indictment does not name these, but says Garnaoui had planned to detonate several bombs during a demonstration in Berlin at the start of the Iraq war.
In a trial expected to last several months, Garnaoui is also charged with entering the country illegally, using false documents and evading taxes on a gold and silverware business he ran in Germany from 2000 onwards.
The trial, which resumes on May 11, takes place against the backdrop of a heated debate over a planned immigration law.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.