Belgian court convicted 18 men Tuesday in the largest trial of Al Qaeda suspects arrested in Europe after the Sept. 11 attacks two years ago, handing down a 10-year sentence to a former professional soccer player for plotting to attack a NATO base in Belgium. The ruling ended a four-month trial in Brussels involving members of a predominantly Tunisian network who also were accused of aiding the killers of Ahmed Shah Masoud, a legendary Afghan commander of anti- Taliban forces. Masoud was blown up in his mountain headquarters two days before the Sept. 11 attacks by two Tunisian suicide bombers posing as television journalists and carrying stolen Belgian passports. The judge sentenced Tarek Maaroufi, a Tunisian militant who also is wanted by Italian police, to six years in prison for his role in the Brussels-based network that supplied the fraudulent documents to Masoud’s assassins before they went to Afghanistan via London and Pakistan. Full Story
About OODA Analyst
OODA is comprised of a unique team of international experts capable of providing advanced intelligence and analysis, strategy and planning support, risk and threat management, training, decision support, crisis response, and security services to global corporations and governments.