An Axis of Terror: Suspected terrorists on trial in Morocco have ties to both Hezbollah and Al-Qaeda.
The alleged cell members are accused of organising an al-Qaeda support network to send money and fighters to Iraq.
An unidentified defendant arrives at the Sale criminal appeal court, near Rabat, Morocco, Tuesday, May 27, 2008. A Moroccan investigative judge on Tuesday questioned a journalist from Hezbollah’s Al-Manar television who is being held on terrorism charges, court officials said. Moroccan journalist Abdelhafid Sriti is the correspondent here for the Lebanon-based Al-Manar TV. He was arrested in February along with 35 others suspected of belonging to a terrorism cell headed by Abdelkader Belliraj, a Belgian of Moroccan origins accused of ties to al-Qaida and local terror groups. The alleged cell is suspected of plotting to commit terrorism attacks and organizing an al-Qaida support network to send money and fighters to Iraq. (AP/Abdeljalil Bounhar)
Besides Abdelhafid Sriti, the correspondent with Hezbollah’s Al-Manar television station, a university professor and a police superintendent were also among those arrested. The leader of the cell, Abdelkader Belliraj, is suspected in six assassinations in Belgium from 1986 to 1989, including the the chairman of a coordination committee of Jewish groups in 1989. The network had plotted to assassinate Cabinet ministers, army officers and members of the small Jewish community, the Interior Ministry said. Only a few thousand Jews still live in the largely Muslim kingdom, as many have emigrated to Israel and elsewhere –International Herald Tribune.