... a slap on the wrist, in my opinion. These guys plot to kill people, and all they get is five years?
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=574&ncid=721&e=1&u=/nm/20030930/wl_nm/security_belgium_qaeda_dcSuspect Convicted in Belgian Terror Trial 1 hour, 24 minutes ago
By CONSTANT BRAND, Associated Press Writer
BRUSSELS, Belgium - A former pro soccer player who joined al-Qaida was convicted Tuesday of plotting to blow up a U.S. military base believed to contain nuclear weapons, as a Belgian court convicted more than 20 militants in an alleged terror ring.
Nizar Trabelsi, a Tunisian who once played soccer in Germany, was given the maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. He had admitted planning to drive a car bomb into the canteen of the Kleine Brogel air base, where 100 U.S. military personnel work.
Another Tunisian-born suspect, Tarek Maaroufi, was sentenced to six years for helping the 2001 assassination of Ahmed Shah Massood, a leading Afghan military commander opposed to the then-ruling Taliban. Twenty others were convicted of lesser crimes and sentenced to up to
five years. One defendant was acquitted.
"Terrorism has destroyed the liberty and freedom of individuals," judge Claire de Gryse said at the end of Belgium's biggest-ever terrorism trial. "These acts must be sanctioned most severely."
Defense attorney Yves de Quyve said the court had ignored the remorse Trabelsi had shown during the trial. "They made an example of Mr. Trabelsi after the Sept. 11 attacks," he said. "We believe it was an overly severe sentence."
Trabelsi, 33, fidgeted in his seat during the lengthy court session, smiling at times and trying to talk to his co-defendants. He was stone-faced as the sentences were read.
Federal prosecutors charged the group had formed a "spider's web" of Islamic radicals plotting attacks and recruiting fighters in Europe for al-Qaida and the now-deposed Taliban in Afghanistan.
Trabelsi, who says he met Osama bin Laden (news - web sites) in Afghanistan and asked to become a suicide bomber, was arrested two days after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.
His arrest led to the discovery of the raw materials for a huge bomb in the back of a Brussels restaurant.
"While bin Laden was preparing for attacks on the United States, Trabelsi and others were preparing and looking for explosives in Europe," the judge concluded.
She said phone and credit card records showed Trabelsi's links with terrorist cells in other parts of Europe. Evidence from Belgian army experts on the explosives gathered by Trabelsi showed the attack was "technically possible," de Gryse said.
Although he admitted to the Kleine Brogel plot, Trabelsi has denied allegations, made by a terrorist suspect held in France, that he also plotted to blow up the U.S. Embassy in Paris. An investigation in that case is continuing in France.
Nuclear weapons are believed to be stored at Kleine Brogel, in eastern Belgium, although officials refuse to confirm or deny their presence.
Because Belgium has no specific anti-terrorist laws, Trabelsi was charged with attempting to destroy public property, illegal arms possession and membership in a private militia.
Maaroufi, 41, was accused of involvement in a fake passport ring linked to the Sept. 9, 2001, killing of Massood. The anti-Taliban leader was killed by two suicide bombers allegedly traveling on false Belgian passports. A Tunisian-born Belgian citizen, Maaroufi was also accused of trying to recruit for a foreign military force.
The other suspects, who are all of North African origin, faced a range of charges including forgery, conspiracy to commit a crime, handling stolen goods or membership of a private militia.
Most of the defendants claimed innocence and have said some of their suspicious contacts were maintained out of a sense of international religious brotherhood, not an attempt to commit crime or terrorism.
The 4-month-long trial was held under extreme security precautions at the ornate Justice Palace in the center of Brussels.
