14 alleged Islamic terrorists go on trial in the Netherlands

The trial was to open today of 14 men accused of belonging to an alleged network of young Muslim men plotting acts of terrorism, including the murder of Dutch politicians.

The defendants, mostly Dutch-born children of North African immigrants, include Mohammed Bouyeri, already sentenced to life in prison for the November 2004 murder of filmmaker Theo van Gogh.

After several acquittals in other high-profile cases, the trial of the so-called Hofstad network will be a test for new Dutch laws that advocates say lower the bar for conviction of extremists.

Lawyers for the men say they are religious youths innocent of any wrong-doing.

The defendants were arrested in sweeps following Van Gogh’s murder, which led to a spate of retaliatory mosque burnings in the Netherlands, a country once known for its peacefulness and tolerance.

Bouyeri shot and stabbed Van Gogh on a busy street in Amsterdam, then pinned a letter addressed to politician Ayaan Hirsi Ali to Van Gogh’s chest with a knife.

Hirsi Ali wrote the script for Van Gogh’s film Submission, which criticised the treatment of women under Islam.

The letter threatened her, other politicians, the Netherlands and other western nations with attacks.

At pre-trial hearings, prosecutors said suspects possessed copies of the letter left on Van Gogh’s body and handbooks on how to carry out ritual Islamic murders, and spoke in tapped telephone conversations about killing non-believers like sacrificial lambs.

A number of them trained in Pakistan to carry out armed attacks, prosecutors said.

According to prosecutors, most of the suspects attended prayer sessions at Bouyeri’s home under the guidance of a Syrian spiritual leader, Redouan al-Issar, who fled the Netherlands immediately before the killing.

Other defendants include two men who were arrested after a day-long stand-off in The Hague.

Three police were injured allegedly when one of the suspects threw a grenade.

One of the two is Jason Walters, the son of an American father and a Dutch mother. His teenage brother Jermaine is another defendant.

On the first day of the trial, prosecutors were to hear testimony from an expert on Islamic fundamentalism. Hearings are scheduled until January, with a verdict scheduled for February 24.