Posted on 02/11/2003 4:48:48 PM PST by knighthawk
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — German prosecutors sought prison sentences Tuesday of up to 12 1/2 years for four Algerians accused of plotting to bomb holiday crowds they considered ``the enemies of God'' at a French Christmas market two years ago.
In nearly five hours of closing arguments, prosecutors disputed claims laid out in testimony by Aeroubi Beandalis, Salim Boukari, and Fouhad Sabour that they, along with Lamine Maroni, had planned to attack an unoccupied synagogue.
``They were fully aware that many innocent people — including children — could die or at least be injured,'' said prosecutor Volker Brinkmann.
He asked that Boukari be sentenced to 12 1/2 years, Sabour to 11 1/2 years and Beandalis and Maroni to 10 years each in prison on charges of conspiring to murder and plant explosives, falsifying documents and weapons offenses.
Brinkmann did not explain why prosecutors sought less than the maximum 15-year sentence for the four, saying only that Beandalis' detailed testimony about his training in Afghanistan had been taken into account.
Boukari and Sabour also testified, but Brinkmann contended much of what they told the court was false. Maroni made no statements to the court — save for calling one of his court-appointed translators a ``snake'' and presiding Judge Karlheinz Zeiher a ``devil'' in the opening days of the trial last April.
Although charges of membership in a terrorist organization were dropped last month to speed a verdict, Brinkmann said it ``could not be ruled out'' that the four belonged to a loosely organized group of predominantly North African Islamic extremists centered on London.
He said the motive was their ``militant fundamentalist convictions,'' that saw Western civilization, particularly the United States and Israel and the enemy, and had been honed through attending Afghan training camps in 1999 and 2000.
Prosecutors based much of their findings on a videotape of the brightly lit market and Strasbourg cathedral made by Boukari and Sabour weeks before the alleged planned attack. On the tape, Boukari's voice can be heard saying, ``These are the enemies of God.''
They also referred to several pressure cookers and about 66 pounds of chemicals that can be used to make explosives, as well as a notebook full of jottings about how to mix homemade bombs seized in one of the two Frankfurt apartments used by the group after their arrest on Christmas Day 2000.
``They were counting on the death of a large number of people and creating the most extreme danger through the shrapnel from an exploding pressure cooker,'' said prosecutor Bernd Kolkmayer. He added that such a device could inflict little structural damage on a building.
``Their calculated aim was a bloodbath,'' Brinkmann said. ``A more unscrupulous motive for an attack cannot be imagined.'' The men are not believed to have been involved in the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, or to have had contact with the group of hijackers, including suspected ringleader Mohamed Atta, who lived in Hamburg, Germany.
Lawyers for the four Algerians are to make their closing arguments in the next few weeks. A verdict is expected in March.
If people want on or off this list, please let me know.
This is really poor lawyering - it just sets up the jury for the argument of prosecutorial overkill.
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