18 September 2007

THE HAGUE (AFP) - A Dutch Muslim radical was sentenced to four years in jail by an Amsterdam appeals court on Monday for planning a terrorist attack in 2004.

Samir Azzouz had already been acquitted on the same charges twice by a lower court and an appeals court which said his plans were "so clumsy and primitive" that they were not a threat.

But the case was referred for re-trial by the Dutch supreme court earlier this year, and the Amsterdam appeals court ruled Monday that the Azzouz was indeed planning an attack.

Police found floor plans of government buildings, chemicals and night vision goggles and a silencer for a gun at his home.

Azzouz, 21, was convicted in December last year and sentenced to eight years in prison for planning terrorist attacks against Dutch politicians and the headquarters of the intelligence services in 2005.

Arrested in 2003 because police suspected he was planning to make a bomb, he was released due to lack of evidence.

He was arrested again in 2004 on the charges he is now convicted of, and again in October 2005. He has been in jail since his last arrest.

Azzouz has been linked to a group whose leader was jailed for the murder of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh.

According to prosecutors in other cases against Azzouz he had ties to Mohammed Bouyeri, who was sentenced to life imprisonment two years ago for killing Van Gogh in November 2004.

Azzouz attended religious meetings at Bouyeri's Amsterdam residence before he killed the filmmaker.

Bouyeri has always maintained he acted alone, and prosecutors could not prove otherwise.

[Copyright AFP 2007]

Subject: Dutch news