Posted on 04/01/2004 11:21:44 AM PST by yonif
A terrorist of the Fatah Al Aksa Brigades' in Jenin who planned to murder Israeli Ambassadors in Germany and China, poison water resevoirs, blow up a gas tank and bomb a wedding hall at Jerusalem's Hyatt Regency hotel was sentenced on Thursday in the Samaria Military Court to 18 years in prison.
Alam Khader Mahmud Koka, 23, from Nablus, was also given an additional three-year suspended sentence that will go into effect after he serves his initial term.
In reaching its decision, the court noted on Monday that none of Koka's intentions reached the planning stages or were close to being implemented.
He was captured in November 2002, but details of the case were first released Thursday. A security official told The Jerusalem Post that Koka believed that the conventional terror attacks Israel has witnessed in the past years "don't serve the Palestinian cause, and he therefore sought to carry out mega-type terror spectaculars."
Regarding the plot to bomb the Hyatt Regency, Koka was to forge a wedding certificate and recruit a Palestinian woman to the Fatah Tanzim so that he could fictitiously marry her. The 'couple' would then move into an apartment he owned in Anata (East Jerusalem) and then go to the hotel posing as a married couple where they were to place the bomb in the hall.
According to details released from the court protocol, his charges included membership in an illegal organization, participation in illegal activities, three counts of shooting at IDF tanks and seven counts of manslaughter and soliciting manslaughter.
Prior to the sentencing, the military prosecutor said a number of considerations were taken into account when examining claims for a plea bargain.
"The [suspect's] shooting at tanks was perpetrated from a distance that rendered the attempts ineffective," he said. "The Military Appeals' Court has delivered its opinion on the difference between effective shooting at targets such as mobile vehicles and unarmed people and at armored vehicles where the potential for harm is low."
The prosecutor went on to mention that while the accused made numerous attempts to launch a variety of attacks "none of the plans ripened to the point where they were close to being implemented. While one can see the complex planning of an array of new ideas, they generally remained in the framework of ideas only... his plans were far from reaching the planning stages and far from being implemented."
The military prosecutor gave an example of the defendant's plans to target Israeli ambassadors abroad, noting that contacts with other activists regarding the idea failed to advance the plans to the point of implementation.
Nevertheless, the prosecutor said, "eighteen years is not a short sentence and we believe it is a fitting punishment that suits the serious nature of his crimes. We ask the court to support the plea bargain."
The defendant's lawyer told the court that he agreed to the sentence and noted his client admitted to the charges in the preliminary stages, thus saving valuable court time, a significant matter in light of the numerous charges and large number of witnesses that were called to testify.
In handing down the sentence, the court judges wrote in the verdict, "the defendant is a member of a murderous organization who joined its military squad under the codename of Abu Ramush."
"He launched three shooting attacks at IDF tanks, as well as planning a series of horrendous actions, that fortunately failed to reach their planning stages. The most outstanding among them was the defendant's plans to murder Israeli Ambassadors in Germany and China, poison water resources, blow up a gas factory and a wedding hall...
"We know that the terrorist organizations constantly seek to upgrade their activities and launch attacks which will cause massive casualties. The organizations are also attempting to expand their activities outside the borders of Israel and the immediate area. This can be seen in the plans the defendant plotted ... Through the internet the defendant succeeded in contacting other military activists or potential suicide bombers, within Israel and abroad, including a member of the Hizbullah... He gave a bomb to others seeking to launch an attack and prepared false documents for an activist from abroad that was to enter Israel and poison water resources.
"His arrest prevented the plans from being implemented the potential victims were lucky."
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