Suspected al-Qaida cell leader jailed over 9/11 plot

A SUSPECTED al-Qaida cell leader was convicted yesterday of conspiring to commit murder in connection with the September 11 attacks in the United States, concluding Europe’s biggest trial of alleged members of the terrorist group.

Imad Yarkas, one of 24 defendants on trial, was sentenced to 27 years in prison of conspiracy and being a leader of a terrorist organisation. Prosecutors had accused Yarkas, a 42-year-old Spaniard of Syrian origin, of the more serious charge of being an accomplice to murder and requested a jail term of nearly 75,000 years 25 years for each of the nearly 3,000 people killed in the suicide airliner attacks in 2001.

Two other suspects were acquitted of charges of helping plot the attacks, although one of them was found guilty of collaborating with a terrorist organisation. Twenty-one others also stood trial, but on charges not directly related to September 11. Of those, 16 were convicted of belonging to or collaborating with a terrorist organisation.