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Caribbean-Latin America

Spain releases former police officer wanted by Venezuelan authorities

2010-11-05

[El Universal] Mario Leonardo Rocco, a former Venezuelan police officer who is sought by the Venezuelan justice for an alleged murder committed during a coup attempt led by Hugo Chavez in 1992, was released by a Spanish court on Sunday. Judge Fernando Andreu, of the Spanish National Court, issued the release order and filed the extradition papers as the Venezuelan judicial authorities did not request Rocco's extradition within 40 days, as established in the treaty signed by the two countries, said Spanish newspaper El País. On Tuesday, Luisa Ortega Díaz, the Venezuelan Attorney General, compared the extradition to Spain of the alleged ETA member Arturo Cubillas with the extradition of Mario Rocco to Venezuela. "Let's see if they are going to respond as swiftly as they talk," she said.

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Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Spain probes Israel's 2002 Gaza bombing

2009-02-28

Spain's Judge Fernando Andreu is set to go ahead with an investigation into crimes against humanity by top Israeli military officials. The decision came after Andreu studied translated documents he received from the Israeli embassy, revealing Tel Aviv has not launched any legal procedure concerning a 2002 bombing of Gaza. Andreu agreed last month to pursue a complaint of crimes against humanity against seven senior Israeli military figures over the bombing. The prospect of the investigation, which is in line with Spain's assumption of the principle of universal jurisdiction in alleged cases of crimes against humanity, genocide, and terrorism, has enraged the Tel Aviv government. Has the Spanish government ever investigated crimes against humanity committed by the Franco government, the socialist government before that, the Crown, Cortez and the Princes of ancient Upper Spain? The probe by the Spanish judge could be suspended only if the alleged crimes are subject to a legal procedure in the country involved. Andreu now plans to officially notify former Israeli defense minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer and six senior military officials of the inquiry, and also seek witness testimony from Palestinians, AFP quoted sources as saying. The investigation will look into a complaint by the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights concerning the Israeli assassination top Hamas leader Salah Shehadeh in an air strike on July 22, 2002 on Gaza City. At least 14 civilians - mainly infants and children - fell victim to the attack which also left 150 Palestinians wounded. Maybe Salah shouldn't have been hiding amongst the women and kiddies ... In January, Andreu said the attack in a densely-populated area "showed signs of constituting a crime against humanity." Israel's current Defense Minister Ehud Barak has rejected the complaint as "delirious" and vowed to do "everything possible to get the investigation dismissed." In a bid to alleviate Tel Aviv's rage, Spanish Foreign minister Miguel Moratinos immediately informed his Israeli counterpart, Tzipi Livni, on Jan. 30 of plans to limit the country's powers. Which apparently doesn't include gagging the judge ... Spanish judges can independently launch war crimes investigations against foreign officials. In 1998 a Spanish judge practiced his power, issuing an arrest warrant for former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet who was accordingly detained in Britain.

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Europe

Spanish FM: We'll act to prevent war crimes probes against Israel

2009-01-30

The Spanish show some stones? Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Moratinos informed Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni on Friday of Spain's plan to amend legislation that granted a Spanish judge the authority to launch a much-publicized war crimes investigation against senior Israeli officials. Getting a little warm? Certainly wasn't Obama turning up the thermostat ... Judge Fernando Andreu launched an investigation Thursday into seven current or former Israeli officials over a 2002 bombing in Gaza that killed a top Hamas militant, Salah Shehadeh, and 14 other people, including nine children. The judge acted under a doctrine that allows prosecution in Spain, and other European countries, to reach far beyond national borders in cases of torture or war crimes. The universal jurisdiction ruling sparked outrage in Israel and elsewhere.

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Europe

Spanish court probes Halutz, Ben-Eliezer for 2002 Gaza attack

2009-01-29

A Spanish judge on Thursday launched a probe of seven current or former Israeli officials over a 2002 bombing in Gaza that killed a Hamas terrorist and 14 other people, including nine children. The people named in the suit include Dan Halutz, who commanded Israel's air force at the time, and Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, then defense minister and currently national infrastructures minister. Judge Fernando Andreu said the attack against Salah Shehadeh in a densely populated civilian area might constitute a crime against humanity. The judge was acting under a doctrine that allows prosecution in Spain of such an offense or crimes like terrorism or genocide even if they are alleged to have been committed in another country. Will they apply that retroactively to the Socialists and Communists who killed so many in their Civil War? To the Spaniards who wiped out the Aztecs, Incans and Mayans? How about to all the slaves they brought to Central and South America? No? Andreu announced the probe in a writ issued Thursday.

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Europe

Spain detains suspected Iraq recruiters

2006-01-15

A Spanish High Court judge has remanded in custody seven suspects accused of recruiting fighters to carry out bombings in Iraq. Judge Fernando Andreu said in a court order on Saturday that the group, based in the northeastern Catalan town of Vilanova i la Geltru, was based around a mosque. Comes as a surprise, huh? Iman Mohamed Samadi gave "radical speeches, particularly at Friday prayers, in which he requested prayers for mujahidins, or for people who had given their lives for the jihad (holy war)". Samadi also collected funds at the mosque to support the jihad and the group met privately at the mosque at unusual times of the day to avoid being detected, the judge said. The seven were among 21 arrested this week who Spanish authorities say formed two cells of alleged radical Islamists. The group was believed to have recruited an Algerian who killed 19 Italians and nine Iraqis when he blew himself up in Iraq in 2003. Along with Samadi, others sent to prison pending trial were named as Mohamed Mrabet Fahsi, Hassan Mordoude, Mostapha Fawzi Ait Oudriss, Mostapha Es Satty, Mounir Mrabet Fahsi and Abdelhak Boudina. Another man, who was not named, was released but ordered to make regular appearances before police. The rest of those arrested this week may be charged later on Saturday by another judge at Spain's High Court. One of them, Omar Nakhcha, is thought to have helped three of the suspects in the March 11 Madrid train bombings that killed 191 people, escape Spain.

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Europe

Spain jails 6 accused of aiding Islamic militancy

2005-12-25

A Spanish judge has jailed six people on suspicion of recruiting Islamic radicals to send as suicide bombers or insurgents to Iraq, Chechnya or Kashmir, a court official said on Saturday. The six were among 16 people arrested on Monday in raids around Spain. Another two people surrendered after learning police were looking for them. After Monday's arrests, the Interior Ministry said the suspects recruited and indoctrinated people who were then sent to wage "holy war" in Iraq as members of al Qaeda. It said the group -- whose members were born in Iraq, Belarus, Ghana, Spain, Morocco, Egypt, France, Algeria and Saudi Arabia -- had two fighters ready to send to Iraq when they were arrested. After questioning the suspects, High Court Judge Fernando Andreu issued an order late on Friday night accusing three of the men of belonging to a terrorist organisation and another three of cooperation with an armed group. He remanded all six in custody pending further investigation. He released the other 12 suspects but said they must report regularly to courts near their homes. The detainees are alleged to have recruited people who "would later be sent to places of 'Islamic' conflict, either to be martyrs, through suicide attacks, or as members of insurgent terrorist groups in Iraq, Chechnya (or) Kashmir ...," Andreu said in the order, quoted by Spain's Europa Press news agency. The six remanded in custody included the alleged leader of the group, a 25-year-old Iraqi known as Abu Sufian, and a Belarus-born man who, according to the Interior Ministry, trained in Chechnya and is an expert in chemical weapons. Andreu said Abu Sufian had met al Qaeda's leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, and recruited people for his organisation. He said the investigation focused on a mosque in the southern Spanish city of Malaga frequented by people with radical Islamist beliefs.

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Europe

Redux on Spanish GSPC arrests

2005-12-24

SIX men suspected of recruiting Islamist radical volunteers to fight in Iraq and other countries were placed in custody today in Madrid on terrorist charges, legal sources said. The men were carrying out "operations of proselytism and recruitment of people who after the necessary indoctrination would have been sent to 'Islamist' conflict zones," according to senior magistrate Fernando Andreu. The aim, he said, was that "either they became 'martyrs' in suicide attacks or joined insurgent terrorist groups in Iraq, Chechnya, Kashmir or selected places in Asia." Three are accused of "membership of a terrorist organisation", among them Hiyang Maan alias Abu Sufian, 25, an Iraqi suspected of heading the cell and being in contact with Abu Mussab Al-Zarkawi, head of the Iraqi section of the al-Qaeda network.peThe other two are Andrey Misura, 30, also known as Amin Al Anari, a Belarussian considered a chemical weapons expert who underwent military training in Chechnya, and Osama Agharbi, 22, a Moroccan student. The three others – Mohammed Srifi Nali, Bouchaib Kaka and Spaniard Jose Antonio Dona Martin – were placed in preventive detention for "collaboration with a terrorist organisation." Spanish police detained 16 men on Monday in nationwide swoops in mainland Spain and the Balearic Islands: eight Moroccans, an Algerian, a Belarussian, an Egyptian, a Frenchman, a Ghanaian, an Iraqi, a Saudi and a Spaniard. Two other Moroccans turned themselves into the police and they and 10 of those detained on Monday have been provisionally freed. According to Andreu their investigations took police to a mosque in Malaga in southern Spain where a radical version of Islam was preached and recruitment activities carried out.

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Europe

Four Algerians charged with financing terrorism

2005-11-30

A Spanish judge has charged four Algerians with membership of a terrorist cell that financed and gave logistical support to an Islamic extremist group linked to al-Qaeda. Judge Fernando Andreu ordered Kaled Bakel, Said Bouchema, Salim Zerbuti and Lyief Sihamida to be detained on terrorism charges. He ordered the release of seven other Algerian detainees. Eleven men were detained last Wednesday in Alicante, Granada and Murcia, on suspicion of having ties to the Algeria-based Salafist Group for Call and Combat, which has declared allegiance to al-Qaeda. Andreu said the four had tried unsuccessfully in February and March to buy explosives in exchange for hashish in the city of Granada, a court official said. The four are also charged with forgery of official documents and credit cards. The seven released were ordered to hand over their passports and appear at the court weekly. Police also presented the judge with taped conversations in which the suspects talked about how to obtain a substance called "red mercury," which has radioactive properties, to make bombs, the court official said. The suspects were accused of financing terrorist activities through petty crime, including drug trafficking and forging credit cards, authorities said. Spanish authorities said the group was not planning an imminent attack.

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Europe

Four Algerians charged with financing terrorism

2005-11-29

MADRID — A Spanish judge has charged four Algerians with membership of a terrorist cell that financed and gave logistical support to an Islamic extremist group linked to al-Qaeda. Judge Fernando Andreu ordered Kaled Bakel, Said Bouchema, Salim Zerbuti and Lyief Sihamida to be detained on terrorism charges. He ordered the release of seven other Algerian detainees. Eleven men were detained last Wednesday in Alicante, Granada and Murcia, on suspicion of having ties to the Algeria-based Salafist Group for Call and Combat, which has declared allegiance to al-Qaeda. Andreu said the four had tried unsuccessfully in February and March to buy explosives in exchange for hashish in the city of Granada, a court official said. The four are also charged with forgery of official documents and credit cards. The seven released were ordered to hand over their passports and appear at the court weekly. Andreu ordered the arrests based on a 10-month police investigation. Police also presented the judge with taped conversations in which the suspects talked about how to obtain a substance called "red mercury," which has radioactive properties, to make bombs, the court official said. They're still falling for the old "Red Mercury" scam? The suspects were accused of financing terrorist activities through petty crime, including drug trafficking and forging credit cards, authorities said. Spanish authorities said the group was not planning an imminent attack. Train bombings in Madrid last year killed 191 people and wounded some 1,500 in Spain's worst terrorist attack, which has been blamed on Islamic militants.

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Europe

11 more GSPC arrested

2005-11-25

POLICE have arrested 11 people suspected of financing and supporting an Islamic extremist group linked to al-Qaeda. The suspects were detained yesterday in and around Alicante, Murcia and Granada and heavily armed police seized computer equipment, drugs and $56,000 in cash during morning raids, officials said. "They were part of a cell that gave logistical support and finance to the Salafist Group for Call and Combat," Interior Minister Jose Antonio Alonso said. The Algeria-based group - also known as GSPC - has declared allegiance to al-Qaeda. The suspects were accused of financing terrorist activities through petty crime, including drug trafficking and forging credit cards, Mr Alonso said. He said the cell had links to cells in Germany, France, the UK, Belgium and Denmark. The Interior Minister, however, sought to emphasise the group was not planning an imminent attack, to assuage fears Islamic extremists may be designing another attack to follow last year's Madrid train bombings that killed 191 people and wounded some 1500. The bombings, Spain's worst terror attack, have been blamed on Islamic militants linked to al-Qaeda. Police raided homes and local businesses in the immigration districts of the three cities. "The operation is framed within the Government's anti-terrorist policy aiming to cut terrorism at the roots," Mr Alonso said. A judge from Spain's National Court - which handles suspected terror cases - ordered the arrests. TV footage showed police wearing masks in the downtown areas of Alicante and Granada. The suspects' nationalities were not immediately known as police tried to confirm their identities, an Interior Ministry spokesman said. The 11 were expected to be taken to Madrid to be questioned by National Court Judge Fernando Andreu, who ordered the arrests based on a 10-month police investigation.

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