ANP http://www.volkskrant.nl/binnenland/1133762424635.html
Translation by Beila Rabinowitz director of MIM:
The 17 year old Malika, a witness in the case against the Hofstadgroep has refused to say anything.She made that clear by refusing to speak to the court. She even refused to answer standard questions about identity .
Last week Malika was "held hostage" by the court because she refused to testify in front of the presiding judge. It was established that she had contact with two of the suspects in the Hofstadgroep. Nouridinne El F. He was arrested with a loaded pistol. Malika and Nouridinne El F were married according to Islamic law by Mohammed Bouyeri (van Gogh's killer).
"....The suspects were ordered to appear in court -but Mohammed Bouyeri (Van Gogh's killer ) has made it known that he will not appear.
"...According to a declaration she gave to police, her husband showed her how to slit someone's throat and told her to drive a car laden with explosives into a shopping center..."
"...Malika's husband (who she married according to Islamic law) Nouridinne El (last names of suspects cannot be published in Holland) told her that Theo van Gogh and lower house member Ayaan Hirsi Ali had to be killed..."
"... Last month Malika received a letter at home in which she was "warned ". She was advised to rescind her testimony or to change it . According to the writer the note was not intended as a threat - but Malika should fear the Allah on Judgement Day. "Allah should lead you or else break your back"
"According to her lawyer Malika's refusal to answer has nothing to do with the so called threatening letter..."
"...After the killing of Theo van Gogh the security services decided to place the group under surveillance - the members varied in age from 18 to 28 years and were mainly of Moroccan background.
----------------------------------------
Dutch Islamist trial hears of gruesome films Mon Dec 5, 2005 12:21 PM ET
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2005-12-05T172055Z_01_RID562389_RTRUKOC_0_US-SECURITY-DUTCH-TRIAL.xml
By Wendel Broere
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - A group of suspected Islamists, including the jailed killer of a Dutch filmmaker, watched films of beheadings, a court heard as they went on trial on Monday for plotting attacks and belonging to a terrorist group.
Dutch police arrested the 14 men after the murder of Theo van Gogh last November by Mohammed Bouyeri, who shot and stabbed the filmmaker before slashing his throat, an act prosecutors said at his trial in July "evoked beheadings in the Middle East, Chechnya, Afghanistan and Iraq".
Prosecutors suspect Bouyeri, now serving life in jail, held meetings in his home for the group, who they say wanted to destabilize society establish an Islamic state through violence.
The trial is a test of a new Dutch law, which introduced the charge of "membership of a criminal organization with terrorist intent" carrying a maximum sentence of 15 years. The group of Muslim men are of largely Moroccan immigrant descent.
Monday's proceedings, in a packed high-security court nicknamed the "bunker", started with an attempt to question Malika Chabi, the 17-year-old former wife of one of the accused, Nouriddin El Fatmi, also known as Fouad.
Dressed in a long, rose-colored robe with a black headscarf, Chabi refused to speak in court, but the statement she had given to police earlier was read out by the presiding judge.
"A throat must be cut from the front, but not entirely so there is maximum suffering. Fouad said this while a film was shown on which people were beheaded," her statement said.
"He showed knives and films about slaughtering and showed us how to take a knife out of its scabbard and said he and Bouyeri stole sheep from a farm to practice slaughtering."
The judge said Chabi told police that El Fatmi had said they should drive a car carrying explosives into a shopping center to die as martyrs and then quoted verses from the Koran.
"You also watched a film featuring Osama bin Laden in which there were songs about jihad and that sort of thing, you were given cassettes by El Morabit with sermons in which death was wished upon the United States," the judge said.
Mohamed El Morabit is one of the accused.
"EXTREME WRITINGS"
Another suspect, Zine Labadine Aouraghe, said in May that "there is no group, and if there were a group, I do not belong to it". The others have made no comment on the charges.
Ruud Peters, an Amsterdam University Islam expert who analyzed data on computers seized in the suspects' homes, told the court that in one text Bouyeri declared war on the Netherlands due to its support for the United States and Israel.
"The views in the writings are extreme ... Few who have an idea of Islamic law would agree with the ideas," Peters said.
Copies of a letter threatening leading Dutch politicians that was pinned to Van Gogh's chest with a knife were found on computers belonging to several of the suspects.
Van Gogh's killing on November 2, 2004, stoked tensions with the 1 million Muslims living in the Netherlands, about a third of whom have Moroccan roots, and prompted a wave of tit-for-tat attacks on mosques, religious schools and churches.
Two of the suspects, Jason Walters and Ismail Akhnikh, will also be tried for trying to kill police officers with a hand grenade when they arrested them and for threats to two politicians.
The date for a verdict for the 2-1/2 month trial has been pencilled in for February 24.
MIM: Original article from the Volkskrant
Hofstadgroep proces getuige Malika zwijgt |