The leader of an al-Qaeda cell in Madrid on Monday became only the second person anywhere to be jailed for the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington 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 television 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 who carried out the September 11 attacks, the 450-page judgement 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 September 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 United States.
The third man accused of taking part in the September 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 will continue to back Alouni as he appeals against his conviction. He had admitted handing over about $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.
”It is a very sad feeling. We were expecting Tayssir back with us today,” said Ahmed Sheikh, chief editor of Al-Jazeera.
A Frenchman, Zacarias Moussaoui, is the only other person in jail for September 11-related crimes, having admitted conspiracy in a US court in April after being arrested in August 2001 while taking flying classes in Minnesota; he faces the death penalty when appearing to be sentenced next year.
Two suspects, Mounir al-Motassadeq and Abdelghani Mzoudi, were cleared of involvement in the attacks by German courts earlier this year.
It was unclear on Monday where the case left Farid Hilali, fighting extradition from Britain to Spain for allegedly making a call anticipating the September 11 attacks in coded language.
In the August 27 2001 conversation, Hilali allegedly referred to aviation training, saying ”they are giving very good classes” and ”have chopped off the head of the bird”. Spanish investigators interpreted this as a reference to the coming attacks. Yarkas told the court that the call had ”absolutely nothing to do with what you say”. — Guardian Unlimited Â