Eurabian Holy Warriors Acquitted
Charles Johnson
Sun Apr 10, 2005 at 7:49 am PDT • Views: 216
Reuters “security correspondent” Mark Trevelyan says some Europeans are beginning to get a bit concerned that they may be going a little too easy on Islamic terrorism: Two Failed Terrorism Trials Raise Worry in Europe.
BERLIN (Reuters) - Failed terrorism prosecutions in Germany and the Netherlands this week have highlighted Europe’s patchy record in securing convictions and prompted some to ask if laws need to be tightened.
Ihsan Garnaoui, a 34-year-old Tunisian, was acquitted in Berlin Wednesday of trying to form a terrorist group, even though judges considered it proven that he had planned to carry out at least one bomb attack in Germany at the start of the Iraq war in March 2003.
The same day, Dutch teen-ager Samir Azzouz was cleared of planning attacks on Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport, a nuclear reactor and government offices.
He had been found in possession of machinegun cartridges, mock explosive devices, electrical circuitry, maps and sketches of prominent buildings and chemicals prosecutors said could be bomb ingredients.
Legal experts and security analysts said such cases raise a difficult question: in the absence of an actual attack, how close must a suspect be to detonating a bomb before prosecutors can demonstrate guilt?
They also highlight the irony that early intervention by security forces to thwart a bombing may make it harder to obtain convictions.
“We cannot wait until attacks have been carried out and the dead are lying on the street,” prosecutor Silke Ritzert said in her summing-up of the Garnaoui case.
Frank says: