The leader of an al-Qaeda cell in Madrid yesterday became only the second person anywhere to be jailed for the Sept. 11 attacks on the US when he received a 27-year sentence for conspiracy to carry out terrorist murders.
Imad Eddin Barakat Yarkas, 41, who was born in Syria, was one of 14 people found guilty of belonging to the terrorist group in Europe's biggest al-Qaeda trial. The court also sentenced an al-Jazeera TV war correspondent, Tayssir Alouni, to seven years in jail for collaborating with al-Qaeda by acting as a financial courier.
Yarkas had conspired with "suicide terrorist" Mohammed Atta and other members of the Hamburg-based cell which carried out the Sept. 11 attacks, the 450-page judgment said.
Monday's sentences were, however, considerably lower than those demanded by prosecutors. They had called for Yarkas and two others to receive total jail sentences in excess of 74,000 years for almost 2,973 murder charges related to the Sept. 11 attacks. A panel of three judges, who threw out much of the phone-tap evidence in the case, cleared one defendant, Ghasoub al-Abrash Ghalyoun, of charges he had filmed the Twin Towers in New York and other potential targets for al-Qaeda on a 1997 trip around the US.
The third man accused of taking part in the Sept. 11 conspiracy, Driss Chebli, was also cleared of those charges but was given a separate seven-year sentence for collaborating with al-Qaeda. Yarkas and two other men, Ousama Darra and Jasem Mahboule, were found guilty of having command roles within the terrorist group. Eleven further men, mainly of Syrian or Moroccan origin, were considered to be ordinary al-Qaeda members.
Al-Jazeera said it would continue to back Alouni as he appealed against his conviction.
He had admitted handing over some US$4,000 to an alleged al-Qaeda official in Kabul, but denied the money was for terrorism.
"He has been found guilty of doing his job," his wife, Fatima Hamed, said outside the court.
A Frenchman, Zacarias Moussaoui, is the only other person in jail for Sept. 11-related crimes, having admitted conspiracy in a US court in April after being arrested in August 2001. He will be sentenced next year.
A ship that appears to be taking on the identity of a scrapped gas carrier exited the Strait of Hormuz on Friday, showing how strategies to get through the waterway are evolving as the Middle East war progresses. The vessel identifying as liquefied natural gas (LNG) carrier Jamal left the Strait on Friday morning, ship-tracking data show. However, the same tanker was also recorded as having beached at an Indian demolition yard in October last year, where it is being broken up, according to market participants and port agent’s reports. The ship claiming to be Jamal is likely a zombie vessel that
Japan is to downgrade its description of ties with China from “one of its most important” in an annual diplomatic report, according to a draft reviewed by Reuters, as relations with Beijing worsen. This year’s Diplomatic Bluebook, which Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s government is expected to approve next month, would instead describe China as an important neighbor and the relationship as “strategic” and “mutually beneficial.” The draft cites a series of confrontations with Beijing over the past year, including export controls on rare earths, radar lock-ons targeting Japanese military aircraft and increased pressure around Taiwan. The shift in tone underscores a deterioration
LAW CONSTRAINTS: The US has been pressing allies to send warships to open the Strait, but Tokyo’s military actions are limited under its postwar pacifist constitution Japan could consider deploying its military for minesweeping in the Strait of Hormuz if a ceasefire is reached in the war on Iran, Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Toshimitsu Motegi said yesterday. “If there were to be a complete ceasefire, hypothetically speaking, then things like minesweeping could come up,” Motegi said. “This is purely hypothetical, but if a ceasefire were established and naval mines were creating an obstacle, then I think that would be something to consider.” Japan’s military actions are limited under its postwar pacifist constitution, but 2015 security legislation allows Tokyo to use its Self-Defense Forces overseas if an attack,
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) yesterday faced a regional election battle in Rhineland-Palatinate, now held by the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD). Merz’s CDU has enjoyed a narrow poll lead over the SPD — their coalition partners at the national level — who have ruled the mid-sized state for 35 years. Polling third is the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), which spells a greater threat to the two centrist parties in several state elections in September in the country’s ex-communist east. The picturesque state of Rhineland-Palatinate, bordering France, Belgium and Luxembourg and with a population of about 4 million,
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