18 March 2005

MADRID- The trial of suspected members of a Spanish cell of terrorist organization Al Qaeda will get underway in late April, legal sources said.

The National Court trial, for alleged links with the 9/11 attacks in the US,  should last approximately two months.

If the suspects are found guilty, they could be sentenced in late June.

In February, prosecutors said they would ask for prison sentences totalling tens of thousands of years for the defendants if they are found guilty as charged.

Prosecutor Pedro Rubira is asking the court to sentence Imad Eddin Barakat Yarkas, Driss Chebli and Ghasoub Al Abrash Ghalyoun, charged as key co-conspirators in the attacks, to 25 years for each of the approximately 3,000 casualties in the 9/11 attacks.

Rubira is also asking the court to sentence Al Jazeera journalist Taysir Alony to nine years in prison as an accomplice of Al Qaeda, and Spaniard Yusuf Galan to 18 years.

In September 2003, Judge Baltasar Garzon indicted Al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden and 34 members of his terrorist organization.

Some of them are behind bars in Spain on charges they helped prepare the U.S. attacks using Spain as their base, and others are accused of helping fund and otherwise aiding the terrorist network.

Garzon charged them all as accessories to "terrorist murder" in connection with 9/11.

[Copyright EFE with Expatica]

Subject: Spanish news