Belgium opened the trial on Thursday of 23 suspected al Qaeda collaborators, including a professional footballer who has confessed to knowing Osama bin Laden and plotting to attack a Belgian air force base. Other accused in Europe’s latest high-profile trial of suspected Islamic militants face charges linking them to the killing of an Afghan commander days before the September 11 attacks on the United States in 2001. Belgian authorities were taking no chances as the trial started at a tightly guarded Brussels court house a day after al Qaeda called for more attacks on the West. Bullet proof glass shielded key suspects who were each handcuffed to a guard. One key suspect is Tunisian-born footballer Nizar ben Abdelaziz Trabelsi who said in a radio interview last year that he knew and admired bin laden, al Qaeda’s Saudi-born leader and the prime suspect in the September 11 attacks. “He has known bin Laden in certain circumstances that he will explain to the court,” Abbes Mehdi, one of Trabelsi’s three lawyers, told reporters. Full Story
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