Terror trial opens in France

Seven suspected Islamic radicals are going on trial in France yesterday – four of them for allegedly providing logistical support to the killers of Ahmed Shah Massood, the Afghan anti-Taliban military commander.

In the unusually broad-based trial, four of seven face charges for carrying out survival training designed to prepare them for training camps in Russia and Afghanistan.

All seven face allegations of “criminal association in relation to a terrorist enterprise” – a broad charge widely used in terrorism cases in France. They could face a maximum 10 years in prison.

Massood was killed on September 9, 2001, in northern Afghanistan – two days before the terror attacks in the US – by two men posing as journalists.

Four defendants – Adel Tebourski, Youssef el-Aouni, Merhez Azouz and Abderrahmane Ameuroud – are suspected of having direct contact with Massood’s killers.

The four allegedly carried false identity papers, furnished by a network headed by a man based in Italy, Essid Sami Ben Khemais, who was convicted two years ago. He was the alleged logistics head of Osama bin Laden’s European terror operations.

Ameuroud and three other defendants allegedly took part in training courses set up to test the physical aptitude of potential jihadists, or holy warriors. These courses were held in France, mainly in the Alps and in the Fontainebleau forest south of Paris.

The other three – Khellaf Hamam, Ibrahim Keita and Azdine Sayeh – were alleged members of what judicial officials call “the campers group” which carried out survival training in France.

One of the training sessions – designed to prepare the men for similar camps in Afghanistan and Russia’s Chechnya region – allegedly went awry in the French Alps in 1999, when one participant was caught under-equipped during bad weather and had to be rescued by police.

The criminal court delayed hearing the case of an eighth suspect who was also to go on trial, Mustapha Boussaffa, until June 21 because he is ill.

The case of one man alleged to have played a leading role in the campers group - Willie Virgile Brigitte – has been separated from the current case.

The trial is expected to last until April 20 with three court sessions per week. A verdict is expected May 21.