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Viewing cable 06DUSSELDORF15, AL-QAIDA TRIAL OPENS IN DUESSELDORF

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Reference ID Created Released Classification Origin
06DUSSELDORF15 2006-05-12 13:36 2011-08-24 01:00 UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY Consulate Dusseldorf
VZCZCXRO2780
PP RUEHAG RUEHIK RUEHLZ RUEHYG
DE RUEHDF #0015 1321336
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 121336Z MAY 06
FM AMCONSUL DUSSELDORF
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 0013
INFO RUEHDF/AMCONSUL DUSSELDORF 0022
RUCNFRG/FRG COLLECTIVE
RUEHZG/NATO EU COLLECTIVE
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. 
 
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