Brussels: Islamic terror suspects on trial

A terrorist trial against 18 suspects accused of membership and involvement in an Islamist group suspected in recent bomb attacks in Spain and Morocco started in Brussels today, a case that will test new Belgian anti-terror laws.

The trial, taking place under heavy security at the city’s palace of justice, was the first test case under a new 2004 law that made it a crime to consort with terrorists.

Prosecutors are accusing the 18 of membership in the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group, or GICM, which was suspected in the Casablanca bombings that killed 45 in 2003 and last year’s train bombings that killed 191 in Madrid.

Only 13 are in Belgian custody and will appear before the court today. Three of the remaining five are in Spanish custody facing charges there on terrorism, while the two others are in Syrian and Moroccan jails also for alleged links to terrorists.

None is accused of actively taking part in a terrorist attack in Belgium, but some face charges of providing terrorists with forged identity papers and shelter.

The main suspect, Khalid Bouloudou, 30, is alleged to be the Belgian co-ordinator of the GICM. He was arrested in the Netherlands in January 2004, after a traffic offence, and extradited to Belgium.

Prosecutors believe Bouloudou was co-ordinating the aid and support to those who carried out the attacks in Casablanca and Madrid. Four of the 13 standing trial, including Bouloudou, were born and raised in Maaseik, a town of 24,000 on Belgium’s eastern border with the Netherlands.

Defence lawyers say the charges against their clients are exaggerated and claim they are victims of a Europe-wide crackdown against Muslims.

Belgium has had two major terror trials in recent years. In 2003, Nizar Trabelsi, a 33-year-old Tunisian, was sentenced to the maximum 10 years in prison after he admitted planning to drive a car bomb into a Belgian air base where US nuclear weapons are believed to be stored.

Last year, a Brussels court sentenced four men for their involvement in plotting a terrorist attack or for having links with al-Qaida.