Newlyweds watched al-Qaida videos, Dutch terror trial told

ON the night of her wedding, Malika Shabi watched al-Qaida videos of beheadings and listened to her partner rail against Dutch politicians he wanted to kill, according to a police statement read in court yesterday.

But the 17-year-old girl sat stone-faced and silent when called to affirm the statement in court and to testify against her ex- partner and 13 other men at the opening of their trial, in the largest terrorism case to date in the Netherlands.

The defendants, mostly Dutch-born children of North African immigrants, are accused of belonging to a terrorist group that plotted to attack politicians. They include Mohammed Bouyeri, already sentenced to life in prison for the November 2004 murder of filmmaker Theo van Gogh.