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