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Spanish Court Throws Out Terror Conviction Against Spaniard Who Was Held at Guantanamo
Associated Press
July 24, 2006
MADRID , Spain (AP) - The Supreme Court on Monday threw out a terrorism conviction against the only Spaniard to have been held at the U.S. prison in GuantanamoBay, saying there was no evidence to back up charges he was a member of al-Qaida.
The court ordered the immediate release of the suspect, Hamed Abderrahman Ahmed, who in October 2005 was found guilty by a lower court of belonging to a terrorist organization and sentenced to six years in jail.
"There is a total absence of prosecution evidence," the Supreme Court said.
Ahmed was captured in Afghanistan in late 2001 and held by Pakistani authorities for about four months before being transferred to Guantanamo. He said he had gone to Afghanistan to study at an Islamic school.
He was returned to Spain in February 2004 after Spanish judge Baltasar Garzon requested he be sent here for questioning. Garzon eventually indicted him.
During Ahmed's trial, prosecutors said he had gone to Afghanistan to train at an al-Qaida camp.
Prosecutor Jesus Santos said Ahmed's address had been recovered by British police in an al-Qaida linked raid in England.
Monday's ruling was another setback for Garzon, Spain's top anti-terrorism crusader.
In June 1, the Supreme Court threw out an al-Qaida suspect's conviction for conspiracy to commit murder in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States. Here, too, it cited weak evidence against the suspect -- Syrian-born Spaniard Imad Yarkas -- indicted by Garzon in Sept. 2003 as suspected leader of an-Qaida cell in Spain.
The court upheld a 12-year sentence against Imad Yarkas, for belonging to al-Qaida. But it acquitted three other suspects who had been convicted of belonging to or collaborating with al-Qaida.
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