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June 14, 2006

France: Muslim Terrorists Who Plotted Paris Attacks Are Jailed

We reported on March 21 that the trial of 27 Islamists had started in France. These individuals, from the Algerian-originated Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) were arrested between December 2002 and September last year. Some had already confessed to plotting to bomb the Eiffel Tower, police stations, Les Halles, a shopping mall in Paris, and also Israeli interests.

Today, according to Agence France Presse via Expatica, 25 of the individuals charged were found guilty, and two were acquitted. The group is known in France as the "Chechen Group" because two of its leaders had trained in the Caucasus region of southern Russia.

The trial had lasted six weeks and ended last month. Prosecutors had claimed that by December 2002, the group was close to bringing about its planned attacks.

The leader of the group, 33-year old Merouane Benhamed, was given a ten year jail sentence, as was 32-year old Menad Benchellali. The financier of the group, Nourredine Merabet, was given a nine year sentence. 41 year old Said Arif, a former Algerian army officer and chemicals and weapons expert, had been extradited from Syria in September 2004. He was given a nine year sentence. Arif's lawyers had complained that French authorities had allowed him to be questioned by Russian officials after his extradition.

Lower sentences, including suspended jail sentences were given to the remaining members of the group, who were all charged with "criminal association in relation with a terrorist enterprise."

The lawyer for Benhamed, Isabelle Coutant-Peyre said the men were "convicted because they are Muslims. This serves the interests of the US, Algeria and Russia. France has the job of convicting Muslims who are a problem to these powers."

One of those convicted was Chelali Benchellali, father of Menad, who is the imam of a mosque in Lyon in the south of France. This imam has another son, Mourad, who was interned in Guantanamo. He was released in July 2004 but now awaits trial, with five others, on terror charges in France.

The plot was uncovered while French authorities were investigating networks which recruited members to send to fight in Chechnya. They mostly lived in Romainville, a suburb of Paris, and they funded themselves from the proceeds of crime. The first arrests at the end of 2002 also uncovered electronic devices and chemicals which could be used for bomb-making.

When the French press produces its online editions for tomorrow, this story may be updated.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at June 14, 2006 3:06 PM

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Posted by: LSUfan at June 14, 2006 4:37 PM

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