Posted on 09/30/2003 5:08:54 AM PDT by knighthawk
BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) -- A former professional soccer player who joined al-Qaida was convicted Tuesday of plotting to blow up a U.S. military base believed to contain nuclear weapons in the first verdict in a trial of nearly two dozen alleged militants.
Nizar Trabelsi, a Tunisian who once played soccer in Germany, was given the maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. He had admitted planning to drive a car bomb into the canteen of the Kleine Brogel air base, where 100 U.S. military personnel work.
Another Tunisian-born suspect, Tarek Maaroufi, was sentenced to six years for his involvement in the assassination of an anti-Taliban, Afghan military commander in 2001. Twenty others were convicted of lesser crimes and sentenced to up to five years. One defendant was acquitted.
"These acts were very grave, the evidence was clear and uniform," Judge Claire de Gryse said in pronouncing the verdicts and sentences at the end of Belgium's biggest-ever terrorism trial.
Trabelsi, 33, fidgeted in his seat during the lengthy court session, smiling at times and trying to talk to his co-defendants.
Trabelsi, who says he met Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan and asked to become a suicide bomber, was arrested two days after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.
His arrest led to the discovery of the raw materials for a huge bomb and it was long suspected he was also involved in the planning of a suicide mission against the U.S. Embassy in Paris.
Although he admitted trying to bomb the Belgian air base -- where nuclear weapons are believed to be stored, although officials refuse to confirm or deny it -- he denied plotting to attack the embassy.
Because Belgium has no specific anti-terrorist laws, Trabelsi was charged with attempting to destroy public property, illegal arms possession and membership in a private militia.
He was accused of involvement in a fake passport ring linked to the Sept. 9, 2001, killing of anti-Taliban leader Ahmed Shah Massood. Massood was killed by two suicide bombers allegedly traveling on false Belgian passports.
Maaroufi, who was accused of trying to recruit for a foreign military force, faced up to 10 years in prison if convicted.
Most of the defendants claimed innocence and have said some of their suspicious contacts were maintained out of a sense of international religious brotherhood, not an attempt to commit crime or terrorism.
The 4-month-long trial was held under extreme security precautions at the ornate Justice Palace in the center of Brussels.
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