A Dutch court unexpectedly freed four of 12 men accused of belonging to a terrorist recruitment cell in the Netherlands. The order to release the suspects late Monday came after the prosecution reduced the charges against them and sought jail sentences that were less than the time they had spent in detention. The 12 defendants had originally been charged with “lending support to enemies of the Netherlands in a time of armed conflict,” a reference to the Dutch support for the U.S.-led anti-terror war in Afghanistan. The charge, not invoked since World War II, carries a maximum life sentence. But prosecutor Jo Valente reduced the charges to “membership in a criminal organization,” which has a maximum sentence of six years. He recommended sentences ranging from six months to 3 years for all the defendants. The 12 defendants in the current case were arrested in several groups over the past year. The prosecution had linked them to the Algerian-based Salafist Group for Call and Combat which allegedly has ties with the al-Qaida terrorist network. Full Story
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