MADRID, 27 September 2005 — Spain’s High Court jailed an Al-Qaeda leader for 27 years yesterday, finding he conspired with the Sept. 11 plotters but clearing him and two others of killing 2,973 people in the attacks on New York and Washington.
Imad Eddin Barakat Yarkas, Driss Chebli and Ghasoub Al-Abrash Ghalyoun could have faced jail sentences of more than 74,000 years each if convicted of helping plan the Sept. 11 attacks.
But in a setback for prosecutors and magistrates who have spent years investigating the case, the high court threw out the most serious charges.
Yarkas and Ghalyoun, both Syrian-born, and Moroccan-born Chebli were among 24 people tried in Europe’s biggest trial of suspected militants.
A three-judge panel heard from more than 100 witnesses during a 2 1/2 month trial that ran from April to early July at a high-security courtroom on the outskirts of Madrid.
Eighteen of the accused were convicted of a crime, mostly of membership or collaborating with a terrorist group, and were handed sentences ranging from six to 27 years in prison. Six defendants were acquitted on all counts, including Ghalyoun who was accused of giving a video of New York landmarks to Al-Qaeda to help them carry out the Sept. 11 attacks.
Among those convicted was Al-Jazeera journalist Tayseer Alouni, who was sentenced to seven years for collaborating with a terrorist group. The Arab satellite broadcaster denounced the sentencing of Alouni, who interviewed Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks. “This is a black day for the Spanish judiciary which has deviated from all the norms of international justice,” Al-Jazeera News Editor Ahmed Al-Sheikh told the station.
All the defendants had protested their innocence and representatives of several said they would appeal. Yarkas was jailed for 12 years for being a leader of a terrorist group and 15 years for “conspiracy to commit terrorist murder.” Chebli was jailed for six years for cooperating with an armed group, but acquitted of murder.
