Dutch appeals court upholds acquittal of terrorism suspect
A Dutch appeals court upheld the acquittal Friday of a 19-year-old Islamic terrorism suspect accused of planning to bomb a major landmark, Dutch media reported.
Samir Azzouz was found innocent of plotting to attack Schiphol airport or a nuclear reactor. Evidence against him included blueprints and alleged bomb-making materials seized in a raid on his house.
But the appeals court upheld the trial court's opinion that it was uncertain the materials were intended for a bomb and in any case would not have worked.
At his appeals hearings last month, explosives experts testified in detail about the nature of the equipment seized in a raid of Azzouz's home in April 2004, saying wires, fertilizer, and homemade detonators had no other likely purpose than to make a bomb. Prosecutors had demanded a six-year sentence.
Six months after his acquittal in April 2005, Azzouz was arrested again on new charges of planning a separate attack. He still awaits trial in that case.
Prosecutors say he planned to attack Dutch politicians or possibly shoot down an El Al airliner.
Among evidence seized in that case was a farewell video for his friends similar to videos left by suicide bombers in the Palestinian territories and Iraq.
Prosecutors say Azzouz, the Dutch-born son of Moroccan immigrants, was a member of a homegrown Dutch terrorist network prosecutors refer to as the Hofstad Network.
One alleged member of the group, Mohammed Bouyeri, was sentenced to life in prison for the Nov. 2, 2004 murder of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh, who had made a film criticizing the treatment of women under Islam.
According to prosecutors, Bouyeri and Azzouz were leaders of the group.
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WELL, isn't that interesting?