Gruesome evidence at Dutch terror trial
AMSTERDAM— A group of suspected Islamists, including the jailed killer of a Dutch filmmaker, watched films of beheadings, court was told, as 14 men went on trial yesterday for plotting attacks and belonging to a terrorist group. Dutch police arrested the 14 after the murder of Theo van Gogh in November 2004 by Mohammed Bouyeri, who shot and stabbed the filmmaker before slashing van Gogh’s throat, an act that prosecutors argued during his July trial, “ evoked beheadings in the Middle East, Chechnya, Afghanistan and Iraq.”
Prosecutors suspect Bouyeri, imprisoned for life, held meetings in his home for the group they say want to destabilize society and establish an Islamic state through violence. The trial tests a new Dutch law, which introduced the charge of “ membership of a criminal organization with terrorist intent,” carrying a maximum sentence of 15 years. The Muslims accused are of largely Moroccan immigrant descent. Yesterday’s proceedings, in a packed high- security court nicknamed the “ bunker,” started with an attempt to question 17- year- old Malika Chabi, former wife of one accused, Nouriddin El Fatmi, also known as Fouad.
Dressed in a long, rose- colored robe with a black headscarf, Chabi refused to speak in court but the statement she gave to police earlier was read out by the presiding judge.
“ A throat must be cut from the front, but not entirely so there is maximum suffering. Fouad said this, while a film was shown on which people were beheaded,” her statement said.
“ He showed knives and films about slaughtering and showed us how to take a knife out of its scabbard and said he and Bouyeri stole sheep from a farm to practise slaughtering.” The judge said Chabi told police Fatmi had said they should drive a car carrying explosives into a shopping centre to die as martyrs and then quoted verses from the Qur’an.
“ You ( Chabi) also watched a film, featuring Osama Bin Laden, in which there were songs about jihad and that sort of thing. You were given cassettes by ( Mohamed) El Morabit with sermons in which death was wished upon the United States,” the judge said.
El Morabit is among the accused.
Islamologist Ruud Peters, of Amsterdam University, analyzed data on computers seized in the suspects’ homes. He said, in one text, Bouyeri declared war on the Netherlands, due to its support for the United States and Israel. “The views in the writings are extreme . . . few who have an idea of Islamic law would agree with the ideas,” Peters said. Van Gogh’s killing stoked tensions with the 1 million Muslims living in the Netherlands, a third of whom have Moroccan roots. It prompted titfortat attacks on mosques, churches, religious schools.