US embassy suicide bomb plotters jailed

The ringleader of a plot to send a suicide bomber into the US embassy in Paris was jailed for the maximum 10 years today.

A computer expert, who fled to Britain when the plot was uncovered, was jailed for nine years. Four other defendants were also jailed

The investigation against them opened a day before the al-Qaida terror attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon in September 2001.

Djamel Beghal, 39, and the others were charged with ”criminal association in relation with a terrorist enterprise”, a broad accusation commonly used in terrorism cases in France that allowed for a maximum 10-year sentence.

All denied any connection to a terror plot, and Beghal claimed his confession was obtained under torture after his arrest in July 2001 in Dubai.

The charges largely hinged on Beghal’s full confession to Dubai authorities.

He identified a Tunisian accomplice, former professional footballer Nizar Trabelsi as the man who was to enter the US Embassy wearing a bomb belt.

Beghal said the confession was extracted through torture that he claimed included inserting instruments such as knitting needles into his genitals.

Trabelsi was convicted in Belgium in September 2003 after admitting to plans to drive a car bomb into a Belgian air base where US nuclear weapons are believed stored.

The prosecution said the other plot leader was Kamel Daoudi, 30, who was jailed for nine years today.

Daoudi, a quiet computer expert who also had trained in Afghanistan, was arrested in Britain, where he had fled ahead of a police sweep in France.

According to th prosecution, Daoudi was to send information about the preparation for the attack to Afghanistan via the Internet – and receive the green light for the attack in the same way.

Beghal and Daoudi, both of Algerian origin, spoke at length during the trial about their religious commitment but denied being Islamic radicals ready to commit terror attacks.

Asked if he considered himself a radical, Beghal testified: “I am a Muslim and Muslim to the hilt.”