Chief Belgian terror suspect convicted
A former professional footballer has been found guilty by a court in Belgium of plotting a suicide bomb attack.
32-year-old Tunisian national Nizar Trabelsi, was the chief suspect in a Belgian trial of 23 alleged al-Qaeda linked militants.
He used to play professional football in Germany, but failed to live up to early promise. He went to Afghanistan in 2001, where Osama Bin Laden became, he said, a father figure to him.
Trabelsi claims to have been ordered to go to Belgium and blow up a car bomb, with him inside, next to the canteen of the Kleine Brogel military base outside Brussels, which is used by the US military.
Because Belgium has no specific anti-terrorist laws, he was charged with attempting to destroy public property, illegal arms possession and membership of a private militia.
The trial of twenty-three suspected members of al-Qaeda or militant Islamic groups is the largest ever held in Belgium.
The defendants face charges relating to a plot to blow up a Nato military base in Belgium and the assassination of an Afghan military commander in 2001.
Tarek Maaroufi, another Tunisian, is accused of involvement in a fake passport ring linked to the suicide bombing of anti-Taliban leader Ahmed Shah Massood two days before the September 11th attacks.
Several of the defendants are linked to both cases and most claim innocence. The huge anti-terror trial has lasted four months.
Verdicts are expected shortly in the cases of the other defendants.
