Last update - 00:00 16/10/2006
Trial of suspected Dutch-Moroccan Islamic militant begins
By Reuters
AMSTERDAM - A 20-year-old went on trial on Monday charged with planning attacks, in a high-profile case regarded as a test of more stringent anti-terror laws passed since his acquittal last year.
Samir Azzouz, who has become a household name in the Netherlands, appeared in a special high-security courtroom dubbed "the bunker" with five others, including one woman, on charges of belonging to a terrorist group, planning attacks and possessing weapons.
A verdict is due next month.
Dutch prosecutors say they have gathered fresh evidence and can now use tougher laws in trying to secure a conviction of Azzouz, whose acquittal sparked discussions about how close a suspect must come to detonating a bomb to be found guilty.
Amsterdam-born Azzouz was first arrested in a police crackdown which followed the murder of filmmaker Theo van Gogh in 2004 by another Dutch-Moroccan. Ammunition, explosives and sketches of potential targets were found at his home.
He was acquitted in 2005 of charges he planned attacks although he received a three-month prison sentence for possession of weapons, whichhe served.
The court ruled he had "terrorist intent" but his preparations were so primitive they posed no real threat.
He was rearrested in October 2005 on suspicion of a new plot and faces laws introduced since his first arrest and which are intended to allow militants to be arrested and tried for attacks that security forces believe they plan to carry out.
The Dutch government has said the country faces a significant threat of terrorist attack and raised its alert level to "substantial" after bomb attacks in London on July 7, 2005, the second highest in a four-stage warning system.
Azzouz's court appearances and arrests have coincided with a period in which the Dutch have agonised over the apparent failure of their multicultural model, grappled with the aftermath of a political murder and cracked down on suspected Islamist militants as fears of home-grown terror increase.
Public attention has focused even more intently on Azzouz since Dutch television screened a "martyr" video in which he appeared with weapons, issued threats in Arabic, and urged jihad.
Although Azzouz does not dispute he is in the video he says it should not be taken seriously.
Speaking by telephone from prison he told Dutch television last month he had been demonised by an Islamophobic, paranoid state, and would seek political asylum in Cuba.