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December 20, 2005
UK: Belfast Court Sentences Algerian Islamist To Six Years
We reported on November 24 that a 32 year old Algerian, Abbas Boutrab, had been sentenced in a special court in Belfast, of possessing information "for a purpose connected with the commission, preparation or instigation of an act of terrorism."
Boutrab had been arrested in 2003 at Newtownabbey, near Belfast. Security officers found, in his home in the Whitehouse district of Whiteabbey, details which Boutrab had copied from the internet on bomb manufacture, reproduced on 25 CDs.He claimed he had only done this out of "curiosity".
He was also found guilty of possessing a passport, which had been stolen from one Fabio Parenti, an Italian tourist. The passport had been snatched in Dublin airport on September 1, 2001.
The trial took place in a revival of the so-called Diplock system, which began during the period of Northern Ireland's Troubles, when they were used routinely to deal with local terrorists. The Diplock court has a judge, but no jury.
Prosecutors had claimed Boutrab had tried to seek asylum in the Netherlands, Ireland and the UK, using various aliases. Italian, Dutch, French and Irish security forces assisted in bringing the case.
Police have said that Boutrab is "a very dangerous man". They claim that Abbas Boutrab is only an assumed identity.
Today, the BBC, which gives his age as 27, reports that Boutrab has been sentenced to six years' imprisonment.
As he has been in custody for two years and seven months he is thought to be due for release in four months' time, in April next year. The United Kingdom has a bizarre tradition of generally halving custodial sentences, as an inducement to "good behaviour".
Crown Court judge Mr Justice Weatherup recommended that Boutrab should be deported as soon as his sentence is completed.
"Now we find the terrorism threat is subsiding (in Northern Ireland) and a new threat is emerging," said the judge."This new threat has an added horror because the terrorist stands amongst the innocent men, women and children.
"That's a feature in the material that was recovered here. It provides instructions for improvised explosives with the objective of bringing down an aircraft and the lives of all those on board."
Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at December 20, 2005 6:10 PM
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