BELGRADE, Serbia - A Serbian court has sentenced 11 Muslims to up to 13 years in prison for planning terrorist activities.
The Special Court in Belgrade ruled Friday that the defendants planned terrorist attacks against police and Muslim officials and different targets in the Serbian capital, including the U.S. Embassy building in 2007.
Fifteen Muslims were arrested in raids in 2007 in the tense Sandzak region bordering Kosovo. The raids uncovered large caches of ammunition and bomb-making material.
A special Belgrade court on Friday sentenced 11 members of a radical
Islamic Wahabi movement to more than 60 years in prison after they were
found guilty of planning terrorist activities and illegal weapons
possession.
Fifteen members of the group were arrested in Serbia’s southern Sandzak region, which has a substantial Muslim population.
The trial started in January last year but 12 members of the group
refused to engage defence lawyers, saying they did not recognise a
Serbian court and could be “judged only by Allah”.
Leader of the group, Senad Ramovic, was sentenced to 13 years,
while another ten members received from six months to eight years in
jail. Three members of the group were acquitted and one is being tried
separately.
The group operated a terrorist training camp on Ninaja mountain
near Sandzak’s regional centre of Novi Pazar and police discovered a
large cache of weapons, explosives and ammunition at the camp.
Police also discovered maps and photos of buildings they were planning to blow up including the US embassy in Belgrade.
According to the indictment, the group also planned to kill the
head of Islamic Community in Sandzak Muamer Zukorlic, after accusing
him of being a CIA agent.
Zukorlic testified at the trial that he had heard about a plot
against his life, but pressed no charges and said he had forgiven his
would-be assassins.
The Wahabi ideology is a conservative form of Sunni Islam attributed to 18th century Saudi scholar Muhammad ibn Abd-al-Wahhab.
It was brought to the Balkans by thousands of mujahadeen fighters
who came to fight in support of Bosnian Muslims during the 1992-1995
civil war in Bosnia.
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