Dutch will open terror trial of 14 Muslims

Agence France-Presse

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 4, 2005

AMSTERDAM Fourteen men accused of belonging to a radical Muslim terrorist group, including the convicted killer of the filmmaker Theo van Gogh, are scheduled to go on trial Monday at Amsterdam's high security court.

The murder of the outspoken critic of Islam and the subsequent arrests of members of the so-called Hofstad group have heightened fears that the country is a target for Islamic terrorists.

But prosecutors have already suffered setbacks, being forced to drop charges that the group was specifically planning to kill several Dutch politicians and losing a similar case against another accused terrorist.

The lead prosecutor, Koos Plooy, has admitted that there is insufficient evidence to proceed with charges that the group was planning specific attacks, but he said that its "radical core" had a "common aim to strike fear in the hearts of the Dutch and disrupt the democratic structures" through attacks.

The prosecution charges that Mohammed Bouyeri, 27, sentenced to life in prison for murdering van Gogh, was a leading member of the Hofstad group.

Despite the fact that he already has the maximum sentence given in the Netherlands, the prosecution also wants Bouyeri to face charges in the Hofstad trial because of his alleged vital role.

Prosecutors say that most of the group's meetings were held in Bouyeri's Amsterdam home and that he had spread radical Islamic texts among its members.

His lawyer announced Friday that Bouyeri would not be present in court for the opening of the trial.

Some of the others charged have been linked to a radical Islamist jailed in Spain for the May 2003 bombings in Casablanca that left 45 people dead.

Most of the suspects scheduled to go on trial Monday were arrested in the days following the murder of van Gogh in Amsterdam in November of last year.



Before the trial, the prosecution said it had enough evidence to get convictions, based mostly on testimony from women in the suspects' entourage.

Defense lawyers argue that the prosecution is only showing that the men had radical Muslim sympathies - not a criminal offense in the Netherlands - without concrete evidence that they were planning attacks.

In November, Samir Azzouz, 19, a Muslim radical also accused of plotting terrorist attacks, had his acquittal confirmed on appeal.

The judges said that although Azzouz clearly had terrorist sympathies, there was not sufficient evidence to say he was plotting an imminent attack.

Besides the accusations of membership in a terrorist organization, the prosecution has filed additional charges against two of the group's members for throwing a grenade at the police team coming to arrest them in The Hague in November 2004.

Defense lawyers said they would try to call as a witness the alleged supplier of the grenade.

Some sources maintain that the supplier actually is an informant for the Dutch intelligence services.

On Jan. 13, the prosecution is scheduled to give its closing arguments.

The trial is set to close Feb. 10 after all the suspects have had a chance to make a final declaration. The judges are expected to hand down a verdict Feb. 24.

The Netherlands has not had a terrorist attack since the late 1970s.