Trial of 'Bin Laden devotees' accused of card fraud begins
Two alleged devotees of Osama bin Laden went on trial in Leicester yesterday, accused of using false credit cards and promotional videos to raise funds and recruit for his al- Qa'ida terrorist cells.
Videos found in the possession of the Algerian nationals Baghdad Meziane, 38, and Brahim Benmerzouga, 31, who operated from several houses in the suburbs of the city, included 19 copies of one featuring Bin Laden speeches and others promoting martyrdom and suicide bombings in the Muslim jihad, or holy war, Leicester Crown Court was told.
The defendants, who were arrested two weeks after the 11 September bombings and had been under surveillance for months, could not possibly have possessed the videos without knowing that Bin Laden's cause would involve terror, said Mark Ellison QC, for the prosecution. The quantity of Bin Laden videos also suggested that they were aimed at recruitment and fund-raising for his cause.
The jury also heard claims that Mr Meziane defrauded banks, credit card companies and charge card companies between 20 February and 26 September 2001, through the manufacture and use of counterfeit cards and the unauthorised use of bank details. The men were in a position to provide money for Bin Laden and passports to assist foreign travel for terror network members in need of training and equipment such as radio parts and solar batteries, the court was told.
When Mr Meziane was detained he told police he had fled Algeria after being arrested. But his story was allegedly a cover. Though Mr Meziane had sought asylum in March 1999, he had been living in Britain illegitimately since December 1997 under a false passport in the name of Cyril Jacob, the jury heard.
He secured housing benefits, factory work and council tax relief and opened a bank account under his false name, Mr Ellison said.
So did Mr Benmerzouga, who used a false Belgian passport to open a Barclays bank account in Britain, the court heard. He was later arrested while trying to seek benefits, but used two further false passports to gain a Lloyds bank account and factory work.
Both deny arranging to fund terrorism. Mr Meziane denies conspiracy to defraud, a charge to which Mr Benmerzouga has pleaded guilty. Both admit possessing false passports.
Mr Ellison told the jury that "graphic" material in the defendants' possession glorified the war being waged by mujahedin forces against the Algerian government. But they also promoted a "brand of Islamic extremism centred on the justification and promotion of a jihad", he said.
Though the men denied knowing each other, one had taken over a rented house from the other, the court heard. Security services who had been watching Mr Benmerzouga had seen the two together at banks and even in the same car, it was alleged.
The trial, which is expected to last eight weeks, continues.
* German prosecutors demanded the maximum 15-year sentence yesterday for a Moroccan man charged with being an accessory to the 11 September attacks and belonging to the al-Qa'ida cell in Hamburg said to have led the assaults. Mounir al-Motassadeq, 28, is the first alleged plotter to go on trial for the attacks on New York and Washington in 2001. His lawyers say the student did little more than befriend the attackers. The defence will sum up its case next Wednesday.