SPAIN: SUSPECTED AL-QA'IDA WEBMASTER SENTENCED TO

UNCLAS MADRID 000802 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PTER PGOV SP SUBJECT: SPAIN: SUSPECTED AL-QA'IDA WEBMASTER SENTENCED TO 10 YEARS IN JAIL ¶1. (U) On April 3, Spain's National Court sentenced Algerian national Ahmed Brahim to 10 years in prison for attempting to create web pages for al-Qa'ida. (Brahim was detained on terrorism charges in April 2002 in a town near Barcelona). The court found that Brahim's web pages were designed to "spread the most radical and extremist ideas of Islam which promote the jihad as part of the war against all those who do not share their beliefs." The National Court also found that Brahim's actions constituted the promulgation of Islamic decrees dictated by extremist leaders and designed to encourage followers to commit terrorist acts. ¶2. (U) Court documents indicated that, in planning the web sites, Brahim had meetings with several Al-Qa'ida leaders, including Salman al-Ouda, described as a close ally of Osama bin Laden. Al-Ouda had allegedly given Brahim the material to create the websites, in the form of 22 data CDs filled with material that called for a holy war against the U.S. and other targets. Brahim was also found to have communicated with extremist Salim y al-Homaid (AKA Abu Hajer, a member of al-Qa'ida's Shura Council who was captured in Germany and is now serving a prison sentence in the U.S.),and with Madrid train bomber Serhane Ben Abdelmajid Fakhet. Authorities found substantial jihadist propaganda and computer equipment during a search of Brahim's apartment, which was used as evidence to convict Brahim as a "senior member" of a terrorist organization. //COMMENT// ¶3. (U) Brahim's conviction comes just days before authorities would have been required to release him from prison since the maximum period of pre-trial detention in Spain is four years. Prosecutors have one year to obtain confirmation of the sentence from the Spanish Supreme Court in order to avoid Brahim's release (if a sentence is not confirmed, a subject must be released after serving half of his or her maximum possible prison term, in this case 10 years). If the sentence stands, it will be an important development in Spain's fight against terrorism, since it will mark a substantial prison term for an extremist convicted purely for propaganda activities on behalf of an Islamist terrorist cell. AGUIRRE