Posted on 11/21/2004 9:38:33 PM PST by Mike Fieschko
MADRID, Spain - Ten suspects charged with membership in an al-Qaida cell that allegedly helped prepare the Sept. 11 attacks have been jailed to prevent them fleeing Spain ahead of their trial, court officials said Saturday.The 10, including Al-Jazeera reporter Tayssir Alouni, were arrested earlier this week and jailed Friday after being free on bail for more than a year.
They were among 40 people, including Osama bin Laden (news - web sites), indicted by Judge Baltasar Garzon on charges of belonging or collaborating with al-Qaida. Eleven people, including the alleged leader of al-Qaida in Spain, Imad Yarkas, were already in jail while the rest, including most of the principal suspects, are at large.
Garzon charged some of the 40 with actually helping prepare the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. Garzon, who issued the first indictments in September 2003, argued that al-Qaida used Spain as a staging ground for the attacks so he had jurisdiction to seek prosecution.
Along with Alouni, the other nine jailed Friday were Basam Dalati Salut, Sid Ahmed Boudjella, Ghasoub Al Abrash Ghayoun, Mohamed Khair El Saqqa, Abdalrahman Alarnot, Kamel Hadid Chaar, Jamal Hussein Hussein, Waheed and Ahmad Koshaji Kelani.
National Court prosecutor Pedro Rubira urged the 10 to be sent to prison saying "the nearness of the trial increased the risk of flight from justice, especially given that the charges relate to a terrorist organization that has the means to prevent its militants appearing before court and being tried."
Court officials expect the trial to begin by the end of February.
Lawyers for the 10 criticized the order saying their clients had had no intention of fleeing given that they had abided fully by their bail conditions and that they had lived and worked in Spain for years.
"How am I going to run away?," the leading daily El Pais reported Alouni as having asked in the court. "If I flee I risk my entire journalistic career."
Alouni and another of the 10, Jamal Hussein Hussein, were said to have health problems that could worsen in jail, the paper said.
In last year's indictment, Garzon said Alouni was a right-hand man of Yarkas, who is charged with providing financing and logistics for Sept. 11 plotters in Europe.
Garzon charged that under the cover of journalistic trips, Alouni took money and messages to al-Qaida members in Afghanistan (news - web sites) in the late 1990s. He said Alouni also helped militants arriving in Spain by providing them with housing, money and residency papers.
Alouni, who has both Spanish and Syrian citizenship, was a well-known war correspondent in the Mideast for Al-Jazeera.
He was the Kabul correspondent for Al-Jazeera during the Afghanistan war, and one of the only journalists allowed by the hardline Taliban regime to operate from the areas in its control.
He was criticized by some for helping the station secure videotapes from bin Laden in the months after the Sept. 11 attacks.
Meanwhile in the Peoples Republic of Canada, Al-Jazeera broadcasts freely and they STILL are not permitted to watch Fox.
9-11 ? What's that? asks the MSM. Don't think this story will interfere mcub with coverage of basketball fights and Scott Peterson crimes.
The penalty for terrorism in Spain is ... a few months?
Not from this judge. If he was an American judge in the old west, he'd be known as "The Hanging Judge". Judges, at least Investigative Magistrates like this guy, in Spain combine the role of judge and prosecutor, to some extent anyway.
9-11 ? What's that?
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660 seconds past 9 O'Clock !!!
This one will resolve itself pretty quickly - one car bomb outside the jail ought to get all of those AQ suspects freed.
We are talking about Spain, ya know!!
Ping.
Interesting. I think Allawi was correct to ban Al Jazeera out of Iraq.
Prairie
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