'Peace-loving' terror suspect
2005-04-25 12:29
Madrid, Spain - The lone native-born Spaniard among 24 men accused of belonging to an al-Qaeda cell that allegedly helped plot the September 11 attacks depicted himself Monday as a peace-loving Muslim who rejected terrorism and once took part in a rally denouncing the attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon.
Luis Jose Galan, a Madrid native who converted to Islam more than a decade ago, denied prosecutors' allegations that he received terrorism training at a camp in Indonesia after a recruiting visit to that country in 2001 by the suspected leader of the Spanish al-Qaeda cell, Imad Yarkas.
Galan said he never saw or heard about such a camp when he visited the Indonesian city of Poso, would have been too old for military training anyway and rejects terrorism outright.
"It is not my way of approaching life. I have other values," Galan, 39, said on the second day of the trial of the 24 defendants.
Galan is accused of illegal weapons possession and belonging to al-Qaeda, but not involvement in September 11 planning.
The lead defendant is Syrian-born Yarkas, a 42-year-old father of six who allegedly directed a terrorist cell that provided logistical cover for September 11 plotters, including Mohamed Atta, who is believed to have piloted one of the two hijacked planes that destroyed the twin towers in New York. Yarkas is expected to testify this week. Two alleged accomplices face identical charges and prosecutors are seeking jail terms of nearly 75 000 years for each of them.
Galan said neither Yarkas nor any other of the defendants had ever approached him about engaging in radical Islamic activities. "If they had, I would have gone away. I have another mind-set," he said.
Defence attorney Nieves Fernandez cited a photo that is part of the trial's 100 000 pages of police documents and shows Galan appearing at a Madrid rally in the autumn of 2001, protesting against the September 11 suicide airliner attacks, before his arrest in November of that year as part of raids ordered by Judge Baltasar Garzon.
"I remember because I was there and read a statement," Galan testified.
"I condemn not just the death of 3 000 people but the death of a single person," he said, in reference to the death toll in the September 11 attacks.
- AP