A criminal court in Morocco convicted a 31-year-old man on Thursday of belonging to a group involved in the 2004 Madrid train bombings and sentenced him to 20 years in prison.
Prosecutors at the Sale criminal court, which specializes in terrorism cases, had requested that Abdelilah Ahriz be given a life sentence, saying witness testimony and DNA sampling proved Ahriz’ involvement in preparing the simultaneous train bombings that killed 191 people.
At the end of the one-day trial on Thursday, the court said in a public verdict it found Ahriz guilty of several charges, including “belonging to a criminal group that aimed to commit acts of terrorism” and collecting funds for terror groups.
An electrician, Ahriz had settled in Spain in 1999 but left the country shortly after the bombings.
He moved to Syria in 2005, where he was arrested and extradited.
He was tried in Sale, near the capital, Rabat, under a 1997 agreement between Spain and Morocco that allows the prosecution of a suspect in his native country for crimes committed abroad.
Ahriz was previously acquitted by a Moroccan court for his role in the Madrid bombings, but authorities arrested him again in June to try him on broader charges.
He denied all the accusations against him on Thursday. His lawyer, Abdellatif Ennouari, said that he would appeal the sentence because it was too severe.
“I hope the appeals court will be fairer,” he said, saying it was unlawful to prosecute his client twice on similar charges.
The Sale court said police had conducted new tests that confirmed that Ahriz’s DNA matched samples found by Spanish authorities in two locations where the Madrid bombers blew themselves up to avoid arrest after the attacks.
His DNA was found on a comb in an apartment used in Leganes, near Madrid, and on a pair of bloodstained pants at a country house in Morata de Tajuna, outside the capital, the court said.
The Madrid attacks were among Europe’s worst ever and injured more than 1,800 people. Most of the suspected bombers were Moroccans, several of whom are serving lengthy sentences in Spain.
China on Monday announced its first ever sanctions against an individual Japanese lawmaker, targeting China-born Hei Seki for “spreading fallacies” on issues such as Taiwan, Hong Kong and disputed islands, prompting a protest from Tokyo. Beijing has an ongoing spat with Tokyo over islands in the East China Sea claimed by both countries, and considers foreign criticism on sensitive political topics to be acts of interference. Seki, a naturalised Japanese citizen, “spread false information, colluded with Japanese anti-China forces, and wantonly attacked and smeared China”, foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian told reporters on Monday. “For his own selfish interests, (Seki)
VENEZUELAN ACTION: Marco Rubio said that previous US interdiction efforts have not stemmed the flow of illicit drugs into the US and that ‘blowing them up’ would US President Donald Trump on Wednesday justified a lethal military strike that his administration said was carried out a day earlier against a Venezuelan gang as a necessary effort by the US to send a message to Latin American cartels. Asked why the military did not instead interdict the vessel and capture those on board, Trump said that the operation would cause drug smugglers to think twice about trying to move drugs into the US. “There was massive amounts of drugs coming into our country to kill a lot of people and everybody fully understands that,” Trump said while hosting Polish President
Japan yesterday heralded the coming-of-age of Japanese Prince Hisahito with an elaborate ceremony at the Imperial Palace, where a succession crisis is brewing. The nephew of Japanese Emperor Naruhito, Hisahito received a black silk-and-lacquer crown at the ceremony, which marks the beginning of his royal adult life. “Thank you very much for bestowing the crown today at the coming-of-age ceremony,” Hisahito said. “I will fulfill my duties, being aware of my responsibilities as an adult member of the imperial family.” Although the emperor has a daughter — Princess Aiko — the 23-year-old has been sidelined by the royal family’s male-only
A French couple kept Louise, a playful black panther, in an apartment in northern France, triggering panic when she was spotted roaming nearby rooftops. The pair were were handed suspended jail sentences on Thursday for illegally keeping a wild animal, despite protesting that they saw Louise as their baby. The ruling follows a September 2019 incident when the months-old feline was seen roaming a rooftop in Armentieres after slipping out of the couple’s window. Authorities captured the panther by sedating her with anesthetic darts after she entered a home. No injuries were reported during the animal’s time on the loose. The court in the
RSS