Posted on 06/16/2006 9:53:14 PM PDT by CheyennePress
PARIS: A French court has sentenced 25 Muslims for planning attacks on the Eiffel Tower and other targets with explosives in support of rebels fighting Russian forces in Chechnya.
The five main defendants, of Moroccan and Algerian origin, received prison terms of eight to 10 years, while the others received lesser terms for criminal association.
Two were acquitted in a trial that prosecutors said had demonstrated the "globalisation of the jihad movement".
Prosecutors at the six-week trial in Paris, which ended last month, said the group was planning to hit the Eiffel Tower, Paris's Les Halles underground shopping centre, police stations and Israeli interests.
The group, which was under police surveillance, was close to preparing its action at the end of 2002 when officers raided homes on housing estates in Romainville, la Courneuve and other Paris suburbs.
They found electronic devices and chemicals that could be used for bomb-making.
In a second wave of arrests, in January 2004 in Venissieux, near Lyon, in east central France, investigators found chemical products, including traces of what was believed to be ricin, a deadly toxin.
The judges said in their verdict that the prosecutors had not been able to prove that the defendants were developing chemical weapons.
The men were said to have belonged to a so-called "Chechen connection" - Muslim extremists who received training in the Caucasus.
Among those convicted was Chelali Benchellali, the imam of a mosque in Lyon and father of Menad Benchellali, 32, who was given a 10-year sentence yesterday for being one of the group's leaders. Another of the imam's sons, Mourad, was one of seven French detainees held at the US base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. Released in July 2004, he now faces terrorist-related charges in his home country.
Merouane Benhamed, 33, described as the group's chief, was also jailed for 10 years. Said Arif, 40, who was extradited from Syria to stand trial, and Nourredine Merabet, described as the group's financier, were sentenced to nine years.
Benhamed's lawyer, Isabelle Coutant-Peyre, denounced the verdict, saying the defendants had been convicted because they were Muslims. "This serves the interests of the US, Algeria and Russia," she said.
Could it be we've been misled about Islam??? No, no... I refuse to believe that. One billion people who pray to a rock couldn't be wrong.
It must have been the rioting "youths" from a few months ago behind all of this. Those wacky kids. All they want are jobs......and to kill or subjugate as many infidels as possible.
Honest queston: have any of you heard a peep out of this from the media until now?
I could have very easily missed this as busy as I've been in the past few months, but I wouldn't think that this would be one that I've missed.
Is it really to the point where I have to go to the Australian media to find out about things like this?
Exactly what I was going to post.
THAT is priceless!
That's where we get it from too. ;)
Are they trying to say that muzzies can actually be... GASP... terrorists??????
The boys at CAIR must be blowing a gasket right about now. How dare these Aussies make that kind of connection! Such intolerance of the Religion of Peace (tm)
Funny funny funny.
Oh that's right, those poor, jobless youths. Gosh, if they can't find jobs in socialist France, their former colonizer, there's no hope for anyone anywhere, is there?
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