SPAIN: The suspected leader of al-Qaeda in Spain, who is accused of aiding the September 11th hijackers, went on trial with 23 others in Madrid yesterday in Europe's biggest court case against suspected Islamist militants.
The trial, which is expected to take months and carries possible jail sentences of more than 60,000 years, began with the only Spanish-born suspect saying that he condemned terrorism.
"I absolutely condemn all terrorist acts, all violent acts, the spilling of blood of children, women and the elderly. And I do not believe that as a Muslim, but as a citizen of any ideology," Luis Jose Galan, a convert to Islam, said during questioning by the prosecutor.
Galan is an acquaintance of the central figure in the case, Syrian-born Imad Eddin Barakat Yarkas, also known as Abu Dahdah, who faces sentences totalling 62,512 years if convicted on charges that he aided the September 11th hijackers to plan the attacks on the United States in 2001.
Galan, who is accused of belonging to al-Qaeda and of possessing weapons, faces 18 years in prison. The Spaniard admitted owning some weapons but said that they were all for sport and were properly licensed.
The case against him focuses on a visit he made to Indonesia in July 2001, shortly after Barakat Yarkas had been there. Investigators believe Galan received military training in Indonesia, but he claims that he went there to visit friends and for business reasons.
Before going to Indonesia, Galan received an e-mail from there requesting arms for the jihad (holy war), prosecutors say. Galan said he could not remember that particular e-mail but confirmed that he received a range of reports from the Muslim world. "They can write me an e-mail asking me for the atomic bomb or just about anything. Right now, I don't remember," he added.
The first day of the trial was marked by angry exchanges between some of the 20 defence lawyers and presiding judge Javier Gomez Bermudez, head of a three-judge panel hearing the case.
The defendants were held in a bullet-proof glass booth, although two of them were allowed into the courtroom for medical reasons. All those on trial have denied the charges against them.
Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is also charged, but Spain cannot try suspects in their absence.
Barakat Yarkas and two others - Moroccan-born Driss Chebli and Syrian-born Ghasoub al-Abrash Ghalyoun - also face charges of mass murder for allegedly helping the September 11th hijackers.
Investigators accuse Barakat Yarkas and Chebli of helping to arrange a meeting of some of the September 11th conspirators in Spain in July 2001, when hijacker Mohamed Atta travelled to the country. Atta is believed to have piloted one of the planes into the World Trade Centre.
The defendants include Tayseer Alouni, a reporter for the Arab TV channel Al-Jazeera, who interviewed bin Laden shortly after the attacks on New York and Washington. Prosecutors accuse him of carrying money intended for al-Qaeda members during visits he made to Afghanistan for his journalistic work. Alouni says that he is innocent.
The only person convicted so far in relation to the September 11th attacks is Moroccan-born Mounir el Motassadeq, who last year won an appeal against his conviction in Germany and is being tried again.