AL-QAIDA TRIAL OPENS IN DUESSELDORF

UNCLAS DUSSELDORF 000015

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

STATE FOR EUR/AGS AND INR/EU

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PTER KCRM ASEC MNUC ETTC KTFN KNNP PARM GM
SUBJECT: AL-QAIDA TRIAL OPENS IN DUESSELDORF

REF: 05 STATE 00222496


1. (U) Summary: A trial against suspected members of the
Al-Qaida terrorist network opened in Duesseldorf May 9. One
Iraqi and two Palestinian defendants have been charged with
violating post-9/11 German legislation prohibiting membership in
or support of a foreign terrorist organization, as well as with
insurance fraud and attempted illegal procurement of enriched
uranium for use in a "dirty bomb." The UNSCR 1267 Sanctions
Committee lists two of the defendants as Al-Qaida associates
(reftel). The charges against the defendants in the Duesseldorf
trial are based on evidence gained through wire-tapping and
electronic surveillance measures, the prosecutor said. The
trial is expected to last at least until late October 2006.
Appeals are also likely. End Summary.


2. (U) More than 15 months after the first arrests in January
2005, Iraqi national Ibrahim Mohamed Khalil (31) and Palestinian
brothers Yasser Abu Shaweesh (33) and Ismail Abu Shaweesh (29;
arrested May 2005) are standing trial at the Duesseldorf Higher
Regional Court on charges of membership in or support of a
foreign terrorist organization (section 129b of the German
criminal code). Federal Prosecutor Horst Salzmann stressed that
it is the first time that charges have been brought in Germany
under this particular section, which was added to the German
penal code after 9/11. (Prior to that, only membership in a
domestic terrorist organization was a crime.) The maximum
sentence for membership in a terrorist organization and related
charges is 15 years.


3. (SBU) Salzmann presented the charges at the opening of the
trial on May 9. Salzmann said Khalil, who first came to Germany
under a false identity as an asylum seeker in 1997, spent time
in an Al-Qaida training camp in Afghanistan in 2001 and 2002,
and was then in direct contact with Osama Bin-Laden. In May
2004 Khalil returned to Germany with instructions to recruit
candidates for suicide attacks in Iraq and procure funds for
Al-Qaida. In September 2004 he recruited the older Shaweesh
brother as a possible suicide attack candidate. Due to the
direct links to Al-Qaida, Khalil and the older Shaweesh are
charged with membership in a foreign terrorist organization,
while the younger Shaweesh, whose links to Al-Qaida were less
concrete, has been indicted on the lesser charge of supporting a
foreign terrorist organization. ( The younger Shaweesh --
Ismail Abu Shaweesh - is the only one of the three not included
in the UNSCR 1267 Sanctions Committee list (reftel).)


4. (U) Khalil also faces charges of attempting to procure 48
grams of highly enriched uranium in November/December 2004 for
the construction of a "dirty bomb" to be detonated in the U.S.
or Israel. All three defendants are charged with insurance
fraud and attempted insurance fraud in order to finance
terrorist activities. Yasser Abu Shaweesh took out life
insurance from nine insurance companies and made 24 other
applications for life insurance, aiming to collect (with the
help of his younger brother) more than 5.5 million U.S. dollars
in insurance payments after a planned fake traffic accident in
Egypt. One third of this money was supposed to go to Al-Qaida,
the prosecutor said. Salzmann pointed out that the three
defendants were not planning any terrorist acts in Germany, but
used the country as a logistical base for terrorist activities
abroad.


5. (U) After the presentation of the charges, the counsels for
the defense introduced several motions for a stay, mainly on
grounds that the indictments were based on evidence collected
through wire tapping and electronic surveillance measures
carried out in the apartments of the defendants. Since,
according to the defense, such an infringement on the privacy of
the defendants should be considered unconstitutional, this
evidence could not be used in the trial. In addition, they
claimed Al-Qaida had been destroyed as a result of the U.S. war
on terrorism and no longer existed as an organization in 2004,
which meant the defendants could not have been Al-Qaida members
at the time. The five-judge panel under presiding judge Otmar
Breidling will decide on these motions in the coming days.


6. (SBU) Comment: Breidling has had extensive experience with
terrorist trials at the Duesseldorf Higher Regional Court. In
recent years he has presided over the two Al-Tawhid trials, the
"Caliph of Cologne" Metin Kaplan trial, and PKK trials. In all,
52 days of court hearings have been scheduled in the current
case until the end of October. It is unclear at this point when
the court will announce its verdict, which in any event will be
subject to appeal. End Comment.


7. (U) This message was coordinated with Embassy Berlin.

KNOWLES