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Footballer jailed at terror trial
BRUSSELS, Belgium -- A Tunisian-born former professional soccer player has been jailed for 10 years for plotting to attack a NATO base in Belgium on behalf of al Qaeda. A court in Brussels convicted Nizar Trabelsi of planning to detonate a car bomb at the Kleine Brogel air base, which houses U.S. soldiers. Judge Claire de Gryse announced the verdict Tuesday after reviewing evidence presented during the four-month trial. The court also convicted two other North African-born militants of being accomplices in the assassination by al Qaeda collaborators of Afghan rebel commander Ahmed Shah Masood in 2001. A total of 18 accused Islamic militants, mainly of North African origin, were convicted of a range of offences in Belgium's biggest terrorism trial, which began in May. Five suspects were acquitted. Prosecutors said Trabelsi, 33, who played for German Bundesliga team Fortuna Duesseldorf in the 1980s, met al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden several times in Afghanistan before accepting the suicide mission. He was arrested in Brussels soon after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States. His arrest led to the discovery of the raw materials for a huge bomb in the back of a Brussels restaurant. "Everything points to the fact that on the evening before his arrest, he was determined to carry out this project," de Gryse said passing sentence at the heavily guarded Brussels Criminal Court. "He tried to commit one of the most heinous crimes Belgium has ever known since independence," she said. Trabelsi's lawyer, Didier de Quevy, told Reuters he would appeal against the verdict "without a doubt." Trabelsi has denied allegations, made by a terrorist suspect held in France, that he plotted to blow up the U.S. Embassy in Paris. An investigation in that case is continuing in France. Because Belgium has no specific anti-terrorist laws, Trabelsi was charged with attempting to destroy public property, illegal arms possession and membership in a private militia. Two other militants, Algerian-born Amor Sliti and Tunisian-born Tarek Maaroufi, were convicted of recruiting militants and trafficking in false passports linked to the murder of Masood, who fought the ousted Taliban regime. Maaroufi was jailed for six years and Sliti for five. Two stolen Belgian passports were found on the bodies of Masood's killers, who blew themselves up while conducting a mock television interview with the rebel leader in September 2001. The prosecutor accused Maaroufi and Sliti of recruiting volunteers for guerrilla training in Afghanistan. Maaroufi had already spent time in a Belgian prison for trafficking arms to the Armed Islamic Group (GIA), which is fighting to overthrow the military-backed government in Algeria. He is wanted in Italy for allegedly helping plan an attack on the U.S. embassy in Rome. Copyright 2003 CNN. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.
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