Fourteen people went on trial in Spain this week on charges of involvement with Islamic terrorist groups and recruiting extremists to fight in Iraq. The fourteen, all men and mostly of Moroccan background, are charged with collaborating with Islamic terrorist groups and for helping several suspects flee the March 11, 2004 Madrid bombings. The prosecution…
Muslims are in short supply in the police force, particularly in specialist units like counter-terrorism, a survey by the National Association of Muslim Police (NAMP) and Demos has revealed. Of the 2374 officers working in counter-terrorism, just 27 are Muslims. And of the 4,630 inspectors and chief inspectors, just 30 are Muslims. The survey pointed…
Three Tunisian men wanted in Italy for alleged terrorist offences have been extradited from Britain, police say. Habib Ignaoua, Mohamed Khemiri, and Ali Chehidi were arrested in 2007 on a European Arrest Warrant. Italian authorities accuse the trio of recruiting young men to join the jihad in Afghanistan and Iraq. In July, they went to…
A French court has sentenced four men of North African origin to prison terms for taking part in recruiting Islamicists to join the war in Iraq. The men recruited members in the south of France, in the city of Montpellier. The men were sentenced to between two and four years in jail. Full-text article continues…
Belgian authorities have handed over a leading member of an al-Qaeda linked group to Spain. Spanish police released a statement saying that the arrestee, Algerian national Khaled Abidi, is believed to be a member of the militant Ansar al-Islam group – accused of recruiting Moroccans and Algerians in Spain to fight for al-Qaeda in Iraq….
