Samir Azzouz, Nouredine al Fatmi, Soumaya Sahla al Fatmi, & Mohammed Chentouf have been convicted by a Dutch Court for a plan to bring terrorism to that country. The hit list included Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende and Ayaan Hirsi Ali.

Azzouz is connected to a group which produced the killer of Theo Van Gogh.

Two problems with the convictions? 1) 8 years for plotting terrorism? The guy had already made a shahid suicide video! Makes you wonder what kind of sentence he would have received had he actually succeeded in murdering Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Ten years? 2) Dutch prison. Not exactly of the federal pound-me-in-the-ass variety so common in the US.

In any event, at least he's off the streets. And since he beat the rap the first time, it just goes to show that perserverence on the part of law enforcement sometimes yields results. MORE BELOW. WaPo:

A court Friday convicted four Dutch Muslims of plotting terrorist attacks against political leaders and government buildings and sentenced them to up to eight years in prison.

The heaviest sentence was reserved for Samir Azzouz, 20, who the judges said played a central role in the group and had prepared a suicide video meant to "strike terrible fear into the Dutch people."

Azzouz had been arrested twice before as part of investigations into alleged terrorist activities.

Nouredine al Fatmi, who is already serving a five-year sentence in a separate terrorist case, was given another four years, along with Mohammed Chentouf, for preparing attacks. Soumaya Sahla, al Fatmi's wife, was given a three-year sentence for assisting the group.

One other defendant was convicted of passport fraud and sentenced to three months; a sixth defendant was acquitted of all charges.

Prosecutors say Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende and former lawmaker Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the creative partner of slain filmmaker Theo van Gogh, may have been among the group's targets. The group also had plans to attack the headquarters of the Dutch intelligence service, they said.

The judges ruled that the defendants shared an ideology of jihad, or holy war. But they said the defendants did not comprise a terrorist organization, which likely would have led to longer sentences.

The judge said the four had come "dangerously close" to carrying out terrorist attacks. "Concrete action was to be expected in the short-term," he told the court.

Dutch-Moroccan Samir Azzouz, 20, was sentenced to eight years in prison for plotting attacks and possessing firearms "with terrorist intent". Three others, including one woman, received prison terms of three to four years....

udge E Koning, whose first name was not given by Dutch authorities, highlighted a martyr-style video made by Azzouz in which he said goodbye to his family and said in Arabic: "We will spill your blood here as you have spilled the blood of Muslim citizens in Iraq." Dutch troops served in Iraq until last year...

Azzouz was initially arrested in a police crackdown following the murder of filmmaker Theo van Gogh in 2004 by another Dutch Moroccan, Mohammed Bouyeri. Azzouz was acquitted of planning attacks last year only to be rearrested months later.

Koning said Azzouz had wanted to strike at the heart of Dutch democracy. Even though some of the group's actions were amateurish, he said, they were in possession of dangerous and professional weapons that could have killed many people....

The judge cited evidence that suggested the four militants wanted to drive a truck carrying a bomb into an intelligence service building and attack politicians including Geert Wilders and Ayaan Hirsi Ali, vocal critics of radical Islam.

Hirsi Ali made a film with Van Gogh shortly before his murder that featured veiled women with Koranic verses written on their flesh, accusing Islam of condoning violence against women.

The Van Gogh murder and subsequent trials of suspected Islamists have heightened tension in the Netherlands, which has 1 million Muslims - 6 per cent of the population.

Posted by: Rusty at 04:50 PM | Comments (9) | Add Comment
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