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| Morocco Jails Three Al Qaeda Over Plot to Attack Ships |
| By Reuters |
| Published: 03/03/2003 |
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A Moroccan court jailed three Saudi members of al Qaeda for 10 years on Friday after they were accused of plotting to attack U.S. and British warships in the Straits of Gibraltar last year, their lawyer said on Friday. Khalil Idrissi said Casablanca's appeal court acquitted the three of attempted sabotage and attempted homicide, but they were convicted on lesser charges. 'They have been convicted of charges of criminal conspiracy, the use of false documents and illegal stay in Morocco. But we'll lodge an appeal against the verdict soon,' Idrissi told Reuters. The court also sentenced several Moroccan accomplices to lesser terms, including three women who were jailed for six months for use of false documents and destruction of evidence, the official MAP news agency said. Authorities arrested the 10 suspects last May and June, accusing them of planning 'terrorist attacks' in Morocco and on warships in the straits separating Africa from Europe, and of belonging to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network. MAP agency said at least one Moroccan had been acquitted. The three Saudis -- Zuhair Hilal Tabiti, Abdullah M'Sfer Ali al Ghamdi and Hilal Jaber El Assiri -- had come to Morocco with the intention of settling down, the defense argued. The defense team said the suspects were tortured and sexually abused by Morocco's security services and that the case, which they said lacked material evidence to back the charges, had been fabricated. Amnesty International said it received numerous reports of scores of detainees being tortured or ill-treated in custody in order to extract confessions or to force them to sign statements which they rejected or denied. 'Many of the reports related to Islamists allegedly held in secret detention and accused of involvement in or planning violent acts,' it said in a statement received on Friday. 'Amnesty International fears that the case of 10 Saudi and Moroccan men and women...is just one example among many of this renewed practice of secret detention and torture,' it said. |
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