« Malaysia: Law Minister Makes Threats Against Non-Muslims |
| UK: Islamists Were Ready To Bomb Trains And Nightclubs »
March 21, 2006
France: Trial Of Twenty-Seven Islamists Commences
On Monday, a trial began in Paris of 27 individuals connected with the Salafist Group for Preaching And Combat (GSPC), who are charged with associating with criminals connected to a terrorist organisation, states Expatica.
Some of those accused have admitted planning to mount terror attacks on targets such as the Eiffel Tower, police stations and a shopping mall in central Paris.
Most were arrested in September last year, following a massive police investigation.
The GSPC is an Algerian-based group with various cells in Europe. The suspects were netted in poor Parisian suburbs, after telephone conversations with Algeria were intercepted.
The main leader of the French GSPC is Safe Bourada who was imprisoned in 1995 for giving assistance to terrorists who bombed underground stations in Paris. Released from prison in February 2003, Bourada is believed to have been the ring-leader of the cell.
Other suspects have said that the group planned assaults on Russian targets within France, in retaliation for an attack against a Chechen rebel unit in Moscow in October 2002.
Some of those now on trial were involved with the Groupe Islam Arme (GIA or Armed Islamic Group), whose leader Rachid Ramda was recently extradited to France. Between August to November 1995, this group carried out bomb attacks upon the Musee d'Orsay station and also the St Michel metro station, which killed eight and injured 87. Ramda fled to the UK under a fake identity, where he was arrested in November 1995.
One of the suspects, 41-year old Said Arif, a former Algerian army officer and chemicals and weapons expert, was extradited from Syria in September 2004. There, he claims he had been tortured while in custody in Damascus. His lawyer cristicised the fact that Fench authorities had allowed Russian federal agents to question Arif after his return to France.
The arrests of the men coincided with French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy's strict new anti-terror legislation.
We provided the details of this legislation on October 27, before the measures were approved by the National Assembly on November 29.
The trial is expected to last until May 12.
Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at March 21, 2006 11:54 PM
Comments
Post a comment
Thanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out)
(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)