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Pakistani and 2 Frenchmen go on trial for terrorism

PARIS: A Pakistani man and two Frenchmen of North African origin charged with terrorism for their alleged roles in a network to recruit jihad fighters went on trial here on Wednesday.

Police apprehended the three in 2002 for allegedly providing logistical support to would-be shoe bomber Richard Reid. Investigators could not confirm that suspicion later.

French suspects Hassan el-Cheguer and Hakim Mokhfi told investigators that they had been recruited for jihad by Ghulam Rana (67), a Pakistani who heads the ‘Chemin Droit’ (Straight Path) humanitarian group in France. Rana denies the allegations.

The accused are charged with “criminal association with a terrorist enterprise” and face up to 10 years in prison if convicted in the trial, which is to last until May 27. Rama said at Wednesday’s hearing that his repeated trips to Pakistan were for personal reasons. “My father and my mother passed away and I went to bury them,” he said.

Kamel Lakhram (31), a fourth defendant, admitted that he had housed Reid in his Paris apartment for a night. Lakhram faces a lesser charge for violating immigration law and is the only suspect not locked up pending the trial.

Reid, now serving a life sentence in the United States, was arrested after trying to detonate his shoe bomb aboard an American Airlines flight from Paris to Miami in December 2001 with 197 people on board. The other passengers subdued him. Presiding Judge Jacqueline Rebeyrotte first brought up the subject of Reid, asking Rana about the number of phone calls between him and Mokhfi at the time of Reid’s departure. “We called each other a lot, so what?” said Rana. ap

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