6 Convicted in Paris in U.S. Embassy Plot
The Islamic militants conspired to bomb the building, a court finds. The investigation traced the rise of a European terrorist network. A French court Tuesday convicted six Islamic militants of conspiring to bomb the U.S. Embassy here, culminating a lengthy and labyrinthine case involving a European terror network linked to key Al Qaeda leaders. The three-judge panel sentenced the French Algerian ringleader of the Paris-based cell, Djamel Beghal, to the maximum penalty of 10 years in prison for terrorist conspiracy. His lieutenant, computer expert Kamel Daoudi, received a nine-year sentence. Two suspects were sentenced to six-year terms and the others received three- and one-year terms. The verdict was a victory for Judge Jean-Louis Bruguiere, the dean of France’s anti-terrorism magistrates, who opened the investigation of the embassy plot Sept. 10, 2001, amid increasing concern here about the threat of Islamic terrorists. Full Story