scienceplease
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Joined: 11 Dec 2007
Posts: 288
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 Posted: Tue Oct 07, 2008 7:59 pm Post subject: Spanish appeal clears 15 of terror links |
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http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/10/07/spain.appeal/index.html
| Quote: | Spanish appeal clears 15 of terror links
* Story Highlights
* Supreme Court acquits 15 convicted of belonging to Islamic terrorist group
* Convictions and sentences of five others upheld
* All were originally convicted during trial into alleged plot to bomb National Court
* Lower court did not convict anyone of conspiracy in that plot
MADRID, Spain (CNN) -- Spain's Supreme Court has acquitted 15 men who were convicted earlier this year of membership in an Islamic terrorist group, but upheld the convictions of five others from the same trial, according to a summary of the rulings issued Tuesday and viewed by CNN.
Abderrahmane Tahiri, alias Mohamed Achraf, had his conviction and sentence upheld.
Abderrahmane Tahiri, alias Mohamed Achraf, had his conviction and sentence upheld.
On appeal, the Supreme Court ruled there was insufficient evidence to prove that the 15 were members of a terrorist group, as the lower court held.
The 20 men, mainly Algerians and Moroccans, were convicted by the National Court last February of Islamic terrorist activity. None was found guilty of the more serious charge of plotting to destroy Madrid's anti-terrorism courthouse with a truck bomb.
The five men whose original convictions for terrorist activity were upheld include the leader of the group, Moroccan defendant Abderrahmane Tahiri, alias Mohamed Achraf, 34. The Supreme Court upheld his sentence of 14 years in prison.
The other four are two convicted of membership in a terrorist group and two convicted of the lesser charge of collaboration with a terrorist group. The Supreme Court also upheld their sentences, which range from five to 10 years.
At the original trial, 10 other defendants, mainly Algerians, were acquitted.
The lower court found that Tahiri had "conceived of the idea of executing a terrorist attack with an explosives-laden vehicle against the National Court, as an emblem of the fight against terrorism," according to the National Court's ruling last February.
But the National Court said this did not constitute conspiracy under Spanish law because it was no more than an "undeveloped individual plan" by Tahiri.
The National Court found "non-existent the crime of conspiracy to commit a deadly terrorist attack," even though it convicted 20 of the defendants for terrorist activity.
Most of the defendants in the case were arrested in October 2004, more than six months after the March 11, 2004, Madrid train bombings that killed 191 people and wounded 1,800.
Those attacks put Spain on heightened alert against Islamic terrorism. |
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