FRANCE/ FILE: FIRST OF EIGHT MEN ACCUSED OF HELPING IN ASSASSINATION OF AFGHAN LEADER AHMAD SHAH MASOOD , APPEARS IN COURT

Record ID: 647319

  • Title: FRANCE/ FILE: FIRST OF EIGHT MEN ACCUSED OF HELPING IN ASSASSINATION OF AFGHAN LEADER AHMAD SHAH MASOOD , APPEARS IN COURT
  • Date: 29th March 2005
  • Summary: (EU) PARIS, FRANCE (MARCH 29, 2005) (REUTERS) 1. WIDE OF EXTERIOR JUSTICE PALACE 0.05 2. WIDE OF INTERIOR JUSTICE PALACE 0.09 3. VARIOUS OF PEOPLE ARRIVING AT COURT ROOM 0.18 4. WIDE OF COURT ROOM 0.20 5. SLV LAWYER PHILIPPE VAN DER MEULEN ARRIVING 0.22 6. WIDE OF JUDGE'S DESK 0.25 7. CLOSE OF DOCUMENTS ON DESK 0.29 8. VARIOUS LAWYERS INSIDE COURTROOM 0.35 9. VARIOUS OF PEOPLE INSIDE COURT ROOM 0.42 10. SCU (SOUNDBITE) (French) LAWYER PHILIPPE VAN DER MEULEN SAYING: "[This court] is not trying them for complicity in Massoud's assassination, although it is clear that that element is part of the case. Because when we started looking into the issue of the visa falsifications, the next question we asked ourselves was whether such falsifications could have effectively helped Massoud's assassins to make it into Afghanistan." 1.06 11. SLV POLICE OUTSIDE COURTROOM 1.09 12. SCU (SOUNDBITE) (French) VAN DER MEULEN SAYING: "Today, we must study each event separately and not mix everything together. It is quite clear that the court will have to rule on the issue of forgery of identity papers which allowed some people to engage in Jihad; the ultimate issue is to establish whether both groups [those who forged the documents and those who killed Massoud] are all members of an alleged terrorist organisation or whether some of the people were just fundamentally innocent individuals who just got fascinated by an idea." 1.37 13. SLV LAWYER WALKING INTO COURT ROOM 1.44 14. SLV ONE OF THE ACCUSED WALKING INTO THE COURT ROOM 1.59 15. WIDE OF MEDIA OUTSIDE COURT ROOM 2.05 (EU) PANJSHER, HINDU KUSH AND TAKHAR PROVINCE, AFGHANISTAN (FILE - MAY 2001) (REUTERS) 16. SLV AFGHANISTAN RESISTANCE LEADER AHMED SHAH MASOOD LEAVING BRIEFING TO GO TO FRONTLINE BETWEEN NORTHERN ALLIANCE AND TALIBAN TROOPS 2..09 17. SLV MASOOD SHAKING HANDS WITH MEN 2.19 18. SLV MASOOD GETTING INTO CAR 2.33 19. VARIOUS OF MASOOD SURVEYING FRONTLINE 2.45 20. VARIOUS OF MASOOD SITTING ON HILLSIDE LOOKING THROUGH BINOCULARS 2.57 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 13th April 2005 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: PARIS, FRANCE AND FILE (PANJSHER, HINDU KUSH AND TAKHAR PROVINCE, AFGHANISTAN)
  • City:
  • Country: Afghanistan France
  • Reuters ID: LVAA19E9CV5UX74TM60M19UTYTKZ
  • Story Text: The first four of eight men accused of helping to
    plan the assassination of Afghan resistance leader Ahmad Shah
    Masood went on trial in Paris.




    The first four of eight suspects charged with helping
    assassinate Afghan resistance leader Ahmad Shah Masood in 2001,
    two days before the September 11 attacks in the United States,
    were taken to court in Paris on Tuesday (29 March).

    The suspects are accused of providing funds and forged
    documents for two al Qaeda militants Dahmane Adb al-Sattar
    and Bouraoui el-Ouaer, who posed as Tunisian journalists
    and died when they detonated a bomb that killed Masood at
    the start of an interview with him in northern Afghanistan.

    Masood was the military and political leader of the
    National Alliance -- the main opposition to the
    fundamentalist Taliban movement -- which helped drive the
    Taliban from power after his death.

    He was also called the "Lion of Panjshar" and credited
    with playing a key role in defeating Afghanistan's Soviet
    occupation.

    French investigators said they traced the passports
    found on Massoud's assassins and discovered that the two
    had used channels for trafficking Islamist volunteers for
    jihad, or holy war, from Europe.

    "It is quite clear that the court will have to rule on
    the issue of forgery of identity papers which allowed some
    people to engage in Jihad; the ultimate issue is to
    establish whether both groups [those who forged the
    documents and those who killed Massoud] are all members of
    an alleged terrorist organisation or whether some of the
    people were just fundamentally innocent individuals who
    just got fascinated by an idea", defence lawyer Philippe
    Van der Meulen told Reuters Television during a court break.

    The four suspects in court on Tuesday were Youssef
    el-Aouni, 31, a Frenchman of Moroccan origin; Adel
    Tebourski, 41, also French of Tunisian origin; Abderahmane
    Ameroud, a 27-year-old Algerian, and Mehrez Azouz, 37, a
    French-Algerian.

    According to investigators, Tebourski confessed to
    being a member of an Islamist group led by al-Sattar made
    up of about 10 people.

    He also reportedly described how Dahmane exchanged
    about 30,000 francs into US dollars (6,000 dollars) for the
    assassin before he left for Afghanistan.

    France's intelligence security service said the bomb
    which killed Masood had been planted in a camera stolen
    from a journalist's car in the French Alpine city of
    Grenoble on Dec. 24, 2000.

    Investigating magistrate Jean-Louis Bruguiere has
    accused the eight of having links with a network of radical
    Islamic militants operating in France, Britain, Belgium and
    Italy and which sent the two assassins to Afghanistan for
    training.

    The trials are expected to last until April 20. If
    convicted the accused could face up to 10 years in jail.


  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register