Two to deny al-Qaeda membership at German trial (Roundup)

Sep 14, 2009, 15:25 GMT

   Koblenz, Germany - Two men who went on trial in Germany Monday on charges of membership in the al-Qaeda terrorist network intend to testify in denial of the charges, their lawyers said.

   Aleem N, 47, has already been convicted in Germany on charges of leading their alleged Islamist cell.

The two men put on trial this week allegedly raised funds for and sent equipment including bulletproof vests and an infrared gunsight to the Islamists, the state superior court in the western city of Koblenz was told.

   The men, both aged 31, were residents of a suburb of the industrial city of Stuttgart. One of the men, Omer O, allegedly trained at a terrorists' camp somewhere in the Afghan-Pakistani border zone in 2006.

The indictment said O, who is Turkish, and the other accused, Sermet I, who is a German national, had identified with al-Qaeda's terrorist ideology in or before summer 2004.

Both men appeared relaxed at trial. Defence lawyers said they would testify and insist they were not guilty.

O, who is a screen printer by training, requested a delay in his testimony because he was fasting for Ramadan and did not feel fully fit.

Presiding judge Angelika Blettner consented to adjourn the defendants' testimony till next Monday.

Michael Ried, the lawyer for I, said his client had been working in Malaysia as a paint technician and flew back to Germany to testify at the trial of the cell leader.

'He was utterly astonished to be arrested and does not believe he did anything wrong,' said Ried.

Prosecutor Carola Bitter said that after training, O had been sent back to Germany to recruit more al-Qaeda activists, and persuaded two men to volunteer.

One of those later recruits also went to Pakistan and learned to use guns and explosives, she told the court.

   The man described as head of their al-Qaeda cell was sent to prison in July for eight years.

   Al-Qaeda was founded by Islamist fugitive Osama bin Laden in the late 1980s.

   The full surnames of the accused have been withheld under news media privacy guidelines in Germany.