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December 5, 2005
Holland: Islamist Hofstad Group On Trial
Today, fourteen men went on trial, accused of plotting attacks and for being members of a terror network, states Reuters, and also Expatica. All the accused are suspected of involvement with the Hofstad Group, named after a Dutch slang title for the Hague.
Also among the 14 accused is Mohammed Bouyeri (pictured with real gun), who killed film-maker Theo van Gogh in an Amsterdam street on November 2, 2004. Currently he is refusing to leave his jail cell. His case individually will not be discussed until Thursday or after.
Expatica explains that the first two days of the trial will be dealing with the general aspects of the case, involving testimony from Islam expert Ruud Peters, who examined documents seized from the suspects' possession. The 17-year old key witness, an ex-wife of one of the defendants, and who is called Malika Chabi will also give evidence in the first two days.
Judges have the power to compel Mohammed Bouyeri to attend the trial, and prosecutors are demanding that he should attend, as he can help to establish the truth.
Most of the individuals who are on trial are of Moroccan descent. They were all arrested after Theo van Gogh was murdered on November 4, 2004.
Reuters states that this trial will be seen as a "key test" of a new terror law, which prohibits "membership of a criminal organisation with terrorist intent." This law, if broken, can carry a maximum sentence of 15 years.
Two of those on trial, Jason Walters and Islamil Akhnikh will additionally be tried for the attempted murder of police officers with a hand grenade. This was lobbed on Thursday 11 November while they were being arrested. The grenade injured four officers, two of them seriously.
Reuters states that today, on the first day of the trial Malika Chabi refused to speak, but a statement which she had earlier handed to police was read out in court.
The statement told how Bouyeri had practiced his slaughtering on sheep which he and Nouriddin El Fatmi had stolen from a farm. Nouriddin El Fatmi, also called Fouad, had said that van Gogh and Ayaan Hirsi Ali had to die. (Hirsi Ali, the Somali-born MP, collaborated on a film called Submission which criticised the treatment of women in Islam. She now lives in hiding.)
Malika Chabi's statement described how Fouad had suggested that they should drive an explosives-filled car into the city, and then quoted verses from the Koran.
Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at December 5, 2005 12:58 PM
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