Suspected terrorists acquitted by court

A DUTCH court acquitted four men yesterday of conspiracy to attack US targets in Europe, citing insufficient evidence and an improper police investigation.

The ruling ended the first terrorism-related trial in the Netherlands since the September 11 attacks last year in the United States.

Three of the defendants, including a Frenchmen accused of being the ringleader, had been held in Dutch jails since their arrest two days after the US attacks. The fourth was extradited from Canada earlier this year.

Judge Stephaan van Klaveren said the case fell on procedural grounds because the evidence against them was improperly obtained.

The four were accused of stealing passports and credit cards to be used in a terrorist plot against the US Embassy in Paris and a military base in Belgium.

All denied the charges of being part of a terrorist operation, although they admitted to committing petty crimes.

Most of the evidence was gathered during police raids on two Rotterdam apartments, based on a tip from the intelligence services. The court ruled the tip was insufficient to warrant a police search, and disallowed all evidence gathered in the raids.

Even if the evidence had been admitted, it still would not have been enough “to link them to an international terrorist organisation”, said the judgment passed by the three-judge tribunal.

Prosecutors had sought a six-year sentence for Jerome Courtailler, 28, a Frenchman who converted to Islam. Prosecutors claimed he was the middleman between the Rotterdam group and internationally operating cells.

Lesser sentences were sought for Algerian Abdelghani Rabia, who was arrested with Courtailler on September 13, 2001.

Another Algerian, Amine Mezbar, was extradited in July. The fourth defendant Saaid Ibrahim, was released early this year because of insufficient evidence, but still faces charges.