Dutch Try 12 Men Accused of Plotting 'Holy War'

ROTTERDAM (Reuters) - Twelve suspected Islamic militants went on trial in the Netherlands on Monday, accused of plotting "holy war" against the West and helping recruit al Qaeda fighters.

The men, who were arrested in raids across the Netherlands last year, are suspected members of the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, which is fighting the Algerian government.

The four Algerians and a Frenchman, Moroccan, Libyan, Iraqi, Egyptian, Turk, Mauritanian and a Dutchman are accused of giving financial and logistical support to al Qaeda and recruiting fighters, including two Dutchmen killed in 2002 in Kashmir.

"These are documents of war which prepare for a jihad," said prosecution witness Antoine Basbous, an expert on Islam testifying about documents among more than 650 items seized from the suspects' houses.

"It's not an intellectual jihad but mobilisation for real jihad with martyrdom and in which martyrs gain a place next to God and can even return to earth."

The defense called an Islamic studies professor who said the papers he had seen were not a call to arms.

"There's no document that I have seen which calls for armed conflict against the West," Amsterdam University professor Ruud Peters told the court in the Dutch port city of Rotterdam.

The indictment calls al Qaeda and other groups the enemy of the Netherlands and its NATO allies and accuses the men of helping the enemy "in a time of armed conflict (between the NATO and al Qaeda)."

This is the latest trial of suspected militants in Europe, which has stepped up a hunt for groups with links to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network. Washington blames al Qaeda for the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

Thirteen men were arrested in last year's raids, but one escaped and was recaptured in France.

The accused, some in Islamic skullcaps, listened through headphones to an Arabic translation of the proceedings and spoke only to confirm their names and ages, which range from 21 to 39. Suspects are not asked to enter a plea in Dutch courts.

The other charges against them range from forging travel documents and possessing illegal weapons to drug dealing and human trafficking.

This is the second high-profile Dutch trial in recent months sparked by investigations into militant groups. It is expected to last nine days, with a verdict due on June 5.

In December, a Rotterdam court acquitted two suspects linked to al Qaeda of charges that they plotted to bomb the U.S. embassy in Paris, saying there was insufficient evidence.

In February, a court in Germany convicted a Moroccan of aiding the September 11 suicide hijackers and of being an accessory to the murder of 3,066 people.

Dutch Judge Bars Terror Case Testimony

By TOBY STERLING, Associated Press Writer

ROTTERDAM, Netherlands -- Prosecutors suffered crucial setbacks Monday on the opening day of the trial of 12 terror suspects accused of supporting the Netherlands' enemies in a time of conflict, a charge that has not been filed since World War II.

The men are accused of recruiting young Dutch Muslims for suicide missions, including two who died in an apparent suicide attack in Kasmir, claimed by India and Pakistan.

The court heard that representatives of the Dutch intelligence service would be unable to testify about information they provided in the case, because they must protect their sources. The agency's evidence, if unverified, will now likely be inadmissible.

At a pretrial hearing last month, prosecutor Jo Valente told the court the evidence against the defendants included fake passports and taped farewell messages from apparent recruits for suicide missions. But it was not certain the court would admit the tapes into evidence.

Presiding judge Stephaan van Klaveren also said an American terrorism expert from the FBI would not testify because personal reasons kept him from traveling to Rotterdam.

Because Dutch troops are part of the U.S.-led war coalition in Afghanistan, the men are charged with "lending support to enemies of the Netherlands in a time of war or armed conflict." That charge was last filed in World War II.

The men are accused in the recruitment of two Dutch men of Moroccan origin who died in an apparent suicide attack in December 2001 on Indian troops in Kashmir, where Muslim rebels are fighting to sever the region from Indian control.

In December, a Dutch court acquitted four other men accused of assisting planned terrorist attacks on American targets in France, after the intelligence services refused to break their silence over their sources. The case was widely seen as undermining efforts in Europe to prosecute suspected terrorists.

Valente called Antoine Basbous, a French writer on Islamic fundamentalism, to testify about a dossier of more than 600 documents that were seized from the suspects.

Basbous said the documents were all products of a radical Islamist ideology similar to that of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, who hopes to turn Muslim communities within Western countries into hostile armed camps.

In one document, he said, "Muslims are commanded to give each other support in everything that makes resistance to assimilation possible, such as ... by giving them weapons."

Rudolf Peters, a University of Amsterdam professor of Islamic history, said the documents were not a call to jihad, in the sense of a holy war against the West. "It says there is a war against Islam, but it doesn't follow with a call to arms," Peters said.

The trial is expected to last 10 days.

The defendants come from nine countries, and some have been in jail for more than a year. Dutch law does not require them to enter a plea, but their lawyers say there's not enough evidence to merit an arrest, let alone secure a conviction.

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