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Spain convicts 3 on terror charges

From CNN Madrid Bureau Chief Al Goodman

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MADRID, Spain (CNN) -- A Spanish court convicted three Pakistani-born men of collaborating with a terrorist group and sentenced each to five years in prison, according to a copy of the sentence viewed by CNN on Tuesday.

But the court acquitted the men and eight male co-defendants of the more serious charges of belonging to a terrorist group and conspiracy to commit attacks in Barcelona, where they lived, according to the document, which was dated Monday but made available to CNN on Tuesday.

The 11 Pakistani-born defendants were arrested in Barcelona in 2004, accused of having links to al Qaeda and planning to attack twin skyscrapers on Barcelona's Mediterranean coast and a shopping center in the city's old port area.

The court convicted the three men of collaborating with terrorists because they sent thousands of dollars in 2004 from Barcelona to people linked to terrorist groups, the sentence said.

The recipients included one man who is now on trial for the Madrid train bombings of 2004, others linked to the kidnapping of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, and another linked to the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania.

The court ordered the eight defendants who were acquitted freed from jail immediately, while the three who were convicted of collaborating with a terrorist group remained in jail, despite their acquittal on the charges of membership in a terrorist group.

Defense lawyer Sebastian Salellas said the prosecution's case seemed to fall apart when a key protected witness failed to appear in court. That prevented cross-examination by the defense and effectively left the prosecutor unable to use the protected witness's strong allegations against the defendants. The witness is thought to be in Pakistan.

The court said in its ruling that two protected witnesses, identified only as "A-1" and "C-3" failed to appear in court, and said that the "constitutional standard" that must be observed gives the defense the right to cross-examine witnesses who testify against their clients.

The court, Salellas said, was left with evidence of drugs seized during the arrests in 2004 and records of money transfers from some of the defendants to Pakistan.

"We hoped for acquittal for all. There was not definitive proof presented" during the trial, Salellas told CNN.

The court ruled that it was not proven that the 11 defendants "had formed a terrorist organization called Sunni Tehrik nor that they had planned to attack emblematic buildings in Barcelona," the sentence said.

Salellas said the eight men who were acquitted of the most serious charges left jail late Monday, soon after the court issued the sentence. They included two defendants convicted on a separate charge of document forgery and sentenced to six months each in jail. But since they had been detained since 2004, they were released for time served.

Salellas, who represented five of the 11 defendants, said he would appeal for two of his clients who remain in jail -- Mohammad Afzaal, 42, and Shazad Ali Gujar, 36 -- convicted of collaborating with a terrorist group.

Salellas said Gujar might be released within days because he has already served more than half of his five-year sentence for collaboration with terrorists.

But Afzaal would likely remain in jail, Salellas said, because in addition to five years for collaboration, the court also convicted him of drug trafficking, with an additional four-year sentence.

Police seized 148 grams of heroin at Afzaal's home in September 2004 and also 16,900 euros ($21,900) in cash from drug trafficking, the sentence said.

The three-judge panel ruled that Afzaal, his brother Gujar, and the third defendant convicted of collaborating with terrorists -- Mohammad Choudry Aslam, 47 -- had sent from Barcelona in 2004 "certain sums of money to people linked to terrorist groups, linked to the al Qaeda network, with the aim of sustaining their activities."

The court found that they sent 2,450 euros ($3,185) on April 9, 2004 to Rabei Osman el Sayed Ahmed, alias "Mohamed the Egyptian," who is on trial as an accused mastermind of the Madrid train bombings, on March 11, 2004, that killed 191 people and wounded more than 1,800.

The court, in its 50-page ruling, found they also sent a total of 4,030 euros ($5,239) in two transfers in May and August 2004 to Amjad Farooqi and Mohammad Naeem Noor Khan, two men alleged to have ties to the 2002 kidnapping and killing of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in Pakistan

A source last March told CNN that Farooqi is believed to have been involved in the kidnapping that led to the killing of Pearl. The court said Farooqi was killed in a police shootout in Pakistan in September 2004, a month after receiving the money from Barcelona.

Khan was arrested by Pakistani police in July 2004, two months after receiving money from Barcelona, the court said.

The court found they also sent 11,036 euros ($14,346) in two transfers in May 2004 to Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, who has been linked the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania. Ghailani was arrested in Gujrat, Pakistan, four months after the wire transfers.

The trial was conducted in a secure basement courtroom with bulletproof glass at the National Court in central Madrid. It involved about 16 sessions from early March to mid May.

Those acquitted of all charges against them were Nasser Ahmad Khan, 52; Musood Akhtar, 36; Shafqat Ali, 36; Mahmood Anwar, 38; Adnan Aslam, 27; and Irfan Kahn, 36.

Two others, Farhat Izbal, 28, and Zaman Qamar Uz, 41, were also acquitted on the most serious charges of belonging to a terrorist group and plotting attacks, but they were each convicted of document forgery and sentenced to six months in jail.

But these two were released Monday night from jail, for time served, said Salellas, the defense lawyer.

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