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Militant Islam Monitor > Articles > Moroccan terror leader Abdelkader Belliraj gets life in jail Moroccan terror leader Abdelkader Belliraj gets life in jailJuly 28, 2009 Moroccan terror leader gets life in jail http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5j_4pVAPFiTNh6NQYxQQl0oxTFFMgD99NC4G01
He maintained his innocence throughout the proceedings. He was charged along with 34 co-defendents. In addition to the charges he was tried on, officials said they suspect Belliraj of having taken part in several murders in Belgium, a massive robbery in Luxembourg, combat training in Iran or Lebanon and meeting with Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan a few days before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Belliraj's co-defendents included opposition Islamist politicians, a university professor, a police superintendent, and a Moroccan journalist working for Al-Manar, the TV run by Lebanon's hardline Hezbollah group. The 34 co-defendents were handed sentences ranging from 30 years in prison to one-year suspended sentences. The trial, which began in October, was the North African country's highest-profile terror case. It embodied some of the worst fears of security chiefs in North Africa and Europe: radical Islamists who double up as gangsters and use their dual citizenship to spawn an international terror network. Morocco has imprisoned over 1,000 suspected terrorists since 2003, when al-Qaida-linked extremists killed 45 people in a string of attacks in Casablanca, the country's economic powerhouse. |