A Spanish court has sentenced 18 people for collaborating in organising the 9/11 attacks, reports Serene Assir A Spanish court has sentenced 18 people for collaborating in organising the 9/11 attacks, reports Serene Assir Five months after the trial of 24 suspected Al-Qaeda collaborators opened the Spanish High Court has found 18 of the suspects guilty and sentenced them to a total of 167 years in prison, far less than the prosecution was seeking. Spain is the first European country to try suspected Al-Qaeda collaborators connected to the organisation of the 11 September 2001 attacks in New York and Washington. Among those sentenced are Emadeddin Barakat Yarkas (aka Abu Dahdah), said by the court to be the leader of Al-Qaeda's Spanish cell and Taysir Allouni, well known as a reporter for the pan-Arab satellite channel Al-Jazeera. Yarkas received a 27-year sentence, Allouni seven. The accused denied the charges throughout the trial. Abu Dahdah condemned the attacks of 11 September, and denied having any knowledge whatsoever of Osama Bin Laden. During the trial he repeatedly spoke of Islam as a moderate religion that condones neither violence nor killing. Accused by the prosecution of planning a meeting with Mohamed Atta, thought to be the ringleader of the 11 September hijackers, two months before the attacks were carried out, Abu Dahdah was eventually found guilty belonging to a terrorist organisation, for which he received a 12 year sentence, and of conspiring to murder, for which 15 years were added to his sentence. The verdict against Syrian-born Spaniard Allouni has sparked controversy both in Spain and abroad. The journalist -- who was the first to interview Bin Laden in Afghanistan after the 11 September attacks -- was convicted of collaborating with Al-Qaeda and using his position and contacts to channel funds to the organisation. Judge Balthasar Garzón, presiding at the trial, mentioned at several points during proceedings, that he found the fact that Allouni had been appointed head of Al-Jazeera's office in Afghanistan during the United States-led invasion in itself suspicious, and also disclosed that he had been presented with classified material that further implicated the reporter. Al-Jazeera has said that it will appeal against the verdict. A message posted on the channel's website by Al-Jazeera's General Manager Waddah Khanfar described the verdict as "very disappointing" and "unfair" and added that Al-Jazeera would "immediately contact the legal defence team to study the possibilities of appealing it". Al-Jazeera's news editor, Ahmed Al-Sheikh, described the conviction as "a huge shock" that was based at best on "circumstantial evidence". Al-Jazeera also quoted Haitham Manna, spokesman for the Arab Human Rights Committee, who is due to meet with Garzón. Manna condemned the court's decision as a fabrication. It was, he said, a result of political pressure and the need to "save the face of the Spanish judiciary and police". Human rights and journalists' associations have repeatedly questioned the validity of the evidence against Allouni. The Spanish-language website Rebelión condemned the proceedings as setting a dangerous precedent for journalists while the Madrid office of Reporters Without Borders (RWB) issued a statement describing its "surprise" at the verdict. RWB insists "the prosecution should not have used the interview" with Bin Laden as evidence of Allouni's alleged collaboration with Al-Qaeda. To do so, the statement continued, constituted a breach of Allouni's right to freedom of expression. Six of the defendants were found not guilty, while the remaining 16 received sentences ranging from six to 11 years. Among the witnesses who appeared at the trial was Moroccan-born Jamel Zougam, accused of involvement in the Madrid train bombings of 11 March, 2004 which killed 192 and injured 1,500. His trial is due to begin next year.
