Spanish HC hands Al Qaeda leader

In all, 18 of the 24 defendants in Europe’s biggest trial of suspected Islamist militants were convicted. Sentences ranged from six years to 27 years in jail. Despite the convictions, the High Court threw out the most serious charges in what was the latest in a series of high-profile terrorism trials around Europe in which prosecutors have had only limited success.

Yarkas was sentenced to 12 years in jail for leading a terrorist group and 15 years for “conspiracy to commit terrorist murder”. Yarkas and two other defendants, Driss Chebli and Ghasoub al Abrash Ghalyoun, could have faced jail sentences of more than 74,000 years each if convicted of playing a role in the attacks.

The Arab satellite broadcaster Al Jazeera denounced the sentencing of Alouni, who interviewed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden shortly after the 9/11 attacks. “This is a black day for the Spanish judiciary,” Al Jazeera news editor Ahmed al-Sheikh told the station. —Reuters