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December 14, 2005
Holland: Interpreter Who Leaked To Islamists Is Jailed
We reported earlier that a translator formerly employed by the Dutch intelligence group, AIVD, was accused of leaking critical information to members of the Hofstad Group.
Today, Expatica reports that the 34 year old man, known to the press only as Outman Ben A., has been jailed for four and a half years at a court in Rotterdam.
He had translated Arabic into Dutch for AIVD. Prosecutors had sought an eight year prison term. He has already been in custody for a year, so he will be free before May, 2009.
Ben A. is said to have passed on confidential information, including transcripts of phone taps, to people linked with terror investigations, including one member of the Hofstad Group, called A. H. on 5 August 2004. He also sent M. B. (Mohamed Bouyeri, the killer of Theo Van Gogh) a report on AIVD's examination of the group. 14 members of this group, including Mohamed Bouyeri, are currently on trial in the Hague, in a case which began on December 5.
Outman Ben A. had also been accused of emailing Dutch-Moroccan activist Said Bellari to tell him that his telephone was being bugged.
The presiding judge at the trial clarified that the assumption that Ben A. had deliberately joined AIVD with the intention to steal information could not be ruled out.
Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at December 14, 2005 11:36 AM
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