Dutch court clears 12 men in al Qaeda trial

A Dutch court acquitted 12 men yesterday accused of plotting a "holy war" against the West and helping to recruit al Qaeda and Taliban fighters in the Netherlands.

The Rotterdam district court said there was no evidence to convict the men on charges of belonging to an unspecified criminal group that provided support to al Qaeda and the Taliban in their fight against US-led forces in Afghanistan.

The prosecution's case was hit during the three-and-a-half week trial when judges ruled evidence provided by the Dutch secret service inadmissible. The court issued a rebuke to prosecutors, accusing them of mistakes and carelessness.

"The verdict is disappointing. We thought we had a good criminal case. We are studying the ruling," Rotterdam public prosecutor's office said, after announcing it planned to appeal within weeks.

The four Algerians, a Frenchman, a Moroccan, a Libyan, an Iraqi, an Egyptian, a Turk, a Mauritanian and a Dutch citizen were arrested last year in raids across the Netherlands after their phones were tapped. Police seized videos and books from their homes.

The men - who faced sentences of up to three years in jail - were jubilant after the verdict, smiling and waving at friends in the packed public gallery. One of the men shouted "Allahu Akbar" (God is greatest).

Two of the men were convicted of possession of forged documents by the court but set free because their sentences were lower than the time they had already spent in custody.

It was the second big case lost by Dutch public prosecutors pursuing al Qaeda-linked charges in the past six months. A Dutch court in December cleared two men of plotting to bomb the US embassy in Paris due to insufficient evidence.

"In the major criminal case against the 12 suspected terrorists all the suspects have been cleared of the most serious charges," the court said. Judges said there had been no evidence that the accused had been part of a criminal network.

Four of the men were released during the proceedings because the sentences they would have received if convicted would have been shorter than the time they had already spent in custody.

This was the latest trial of suspected militants in Europe, which has stepped up a hunt for groups with links to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network. Washington blames al Qaeda for the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States.

In February, a court in Germany convicted a Moroccan of aiding the September 11 suicide hijackers and of being an accessory to the murder of 3,066 people.