Author: Wendel Broere in Amsterdam
Publication: Herald Sun
Date: March 11, 2006
URL: http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,18424651%255E1702,00.html
A Dutch court has handed down sentences of
up to 15 years to a group of nine Islamist militants it found guilty of belonging
to a terrorist organisation, but acquitted four other suspects.
Prosecutors had demanded sentences of up to
20 years in a verdict seen as a test of tougher new anti-terrorism laws.
Similar trials for the charge of "membership
of a criminal organisation with terrorist intent" have collapsed in the
past. Introduced in 2004, the charge is intended to enable militants to be
convicted before the attacks they plan are carried out.
"The group ... spread texts inciting
violence and threatened terrorist crimes," presiding judge Allard de
Boer said.
"Threatening to carry out terrorist crimes
strikes public order in the heart ... He who sows hatred and preaches violence
is laying the basis for crimes aimed at instilling fear in the population
and to destroy the Dutch rule of law."
The men were arrested in raids after the murder
in November 2004 of director Theo van Gogh, who angered Muslims with a film
that suggested Islam condoned violence against women.
The court sentenced Jason Walters and Ismail
Akhnikh to 15 and 13 years respectively on five counts of attempted murder
for trying to kill police officers, wounded when the suspects hurled a hand
grenade at them when they tried to arrest the men.
Nouriddin El Fatmi, who was arrested separately
carrying a loaded machine pistol, received a five-year sentence for complicity
in attempted murder and weapons charges.
The court said the three were part of a network
of young men in their 20s, mainly of Moroccan origin, who were found guilty
of spreading threatening texts, images and sound recordings.
Five other members of the group received sentences
of one to two years' jail. Four men were acquitted. The court confirmed the
acquittal of a 14th suspect announced earlier.
The judge said Mohammed Bouyeri, who is already
serving a life sentence for killing Van Gogh, was the ringleader of the group.
Bouyeri was also found guilty of belonging to a criminal terrorist group,
but did not receive a new sentence.
Only Bouyeri, wearing a red chequered headscarf,
and three other accused were in court for the verdict.
"This case is important in setting the
framework for the months and years to come when it comes to continuing the
fight against terrorism in other cases," said Dick Leurdijk, terrorism
expert at the Clingendael Institute.
Several acquittals in trials of people suspected
of planning attacks in the Netherlands and elsewhere in Europe have raised
the question of how close a suspect must be to detonating a bomb before prosecutors
can demonstrate guilt.
A Dutch court sentenced another man to three
years jail in February for trying to recruit volunteers and planning a "violent
jihad", the first conviction under the tighter laws.
The judge rejected defence lawyers' arguments
that there was not enough evidence against their clients, who they said were
being persecuted for being Muslims.
