Posted on 10/30/2002 4:14:47 PM PST by knighthawk
PARIS (Reuters) - A Paris court sentenced two Algerians to life in prison Wednesday for a nail bomb campaign at railway stations in the French capital in 1995.
The court found Smain Ali Belkacem and Boualem Bensaid, both 34 and serving jail terms on terror-related charges, guilty of two separate attacks using home-made bombs to target civilians at Paris train stations, injuring about 44 people.
The seven judges acquitted Bensaid of directly causing the bloodiest attack of France's worst post-war bomb campaign -- a blast at Saint Michel metro station in the heart of Paris in July 1995, which killed eight people and wounded 150.
He was found guilty of complicity in the attack.
Both men denied all the charges.
Algeria's Armed Islamic Group (GIA) claimed responsibility for the attacks and 36 Algerian guerrillas received French jail terms of up to 10 years in 1998.
The bombs, seen as revenge for French support of Algerian authorities and coming just a year after French police shot dead GIA members who had hijacked an Air France flight in Marseille, were filled with nails and bolts.
The two ex-GIA leaders presumed to have ordered the attacks, Djamel Zitouni and Ali Touchent, have both since been killed in fighting between Algerian government forces and Islamic rebels.
Judges postponed the trial of a third suspect, Rachid Ramda, 33, after London's High Court overturned approval for his extradition given by the British government.
Investigators believe Ramda provided logistic support and financing for three attacks, including the one at St Michel.
The High Court ruling prompted a rare complaint by French Justice Minister Dominique Perben last month, and has been a thorn in relations for London and Paris since Ramda's arrest in Britain in November 1995. A separate British court will review that ruling on November 23.
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