AP News, March 3rd, 2007
Twelve Islamic militants were convicted of terrorism-related charges, including eight with alleged ties to al-Qaida who had volunteered to fight in Iraq, Morocco's official news agency reported.
The appeals court in Sale, outside the capital, Rabat, on Friday handed down prison terms of two to 15 years in the separate cases _ with the stiffest, 15-year sentence for a Tunisian, Mohamed Ben El Hadi Messahel, the MAP agency reported.
Messahel, a 37-year-old former restaurant worker in Milan, Italy, was the main defendant, and had allegedly made contact with seven other defendants in Sale and the city of Casablanca after entering Morocco in January last year, according to a police report, MAP said.
The seven others, all Moroccan, were convicted on charges of "organizing a criminal group preparing and committing terror acts" and lesser counts, and received prison sentences of two to 10 years. One defendant was acquitted.
Police said the faction also had ties elsewhere in North Africa and Europe, and with the Algeria-based Salafist Group for Call and Combat, which recently sought to rename itself as al-Qaida in North Africa, MAP reported.
In separate cases, the appeals court's criminal chamber convicted four defendants on terrorism-related charges, sentencing them to prison terms of two to five years, MAP said.
Two of the defendants _ Ayoub Zanm and Abdelhak Kouani _ were sentenced to two years each for organizing a criminal gang and "membership in a group of fighters in Iraq," MAP said, without elaborating.
Proceedings in four other terrorism cases involving 10 defendants were postponed until March 30, April 2 and May 11, MAP said.
