Posted on 05/08/2003 9:37:46 AM PDT by knighthawk
Men deny links to bin Laden
A military court sentenced eight suspected members of Osama bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda network to prison terms of three to 15 years, according to verdicts posted on a court bulletin board Tuesday.
The eight were among 22 people 18 of them still at large accused in Lebanon of having links to the network. It was not immediately known if they also had links to another group blamed for a string of bombings on Western targets in Lebanon.
The court sentenced Australian-Lebanese citizen Mohammed Ramez Sultan; Abdullah al-Muhtadi and Khaled Minawi, both Lebanese; and Ihab Hussein Dafaa, a Saudi, to three years in prison, in its verdict late Monday.
The four men, who were present, denied belonging to Al-Qaeda, which is blamed for the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in the United States. They also denied planning to form an Al-Qaeda cell in Lebanon, saying they had collected money for Afghan and Chechen refugees.
The arrests and convictions were the first in Lebanon since the Sept. 11 attacks.
The court, presided over by Brigadier Maher Safieddine, also sentenced in absentia Mohammed Yehia al-Kaaki, Ahmed Salim Mikati and Ali Mohammed Hatem, all Lebanese, and Palestinian Moueen Hussein Abdel-Rahman, to 15 years in prison.
Before handing down the verdicts and sentences, the court questioned a witness who said Dafaa had lectured about Wahhabism, an extreme school of Islamic thought. “He did not seem to be planning for violent acts,” Ahmed Ajam told the court.
The eight were found guilty of forming a terrorist organization with the aim of committing crimes, undermining state authority and attempting to carry out terror acts, the court said.
On Sunday, the Lebanese Army announced the arrest of Khaled Mohammed al-Ali, the leader of a group suspected of attacking fast food chains and Western targets in Lebanon.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Canberra said the department was passing messages between Sultan and his family in Australia.
She said Australia would provide Sultan with consular assistance. “We’ll just check on his welfare and pass on any messages between the family and himself,” she said.
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