Jihadist Recruiter's New Belgium Trial is Double Jeopardy, Lawyers Says
Belgium's second trial of top jihadist recruiter Khalid Zerkani risked being scrapped as his lawyer and the prosecutor argued Monday it amounts to double jeopardy.
A Belgian appeals court in April sentenced Zerkani to 15 years in prison for recruiting dozens of people, including several who became key suspects in the Brussels and Paris attacks, to wage jihad in Syria.
A Brussels criminal court will rule December 15 whether to continue the new trial that opened Monday with the 43-year-old Moroccan-born Zerkani appearing briefly before the judges with his head shaved and a wearing beard.
His new lawyer Nabil Khoulalene said the charges against his client "are described in the same way" as the old ones and cover "a similar period," and simply concern "other people" who were recruited.
Khoulalene urged the court to declare the "inadmissibility of the proceedings" based on the principle of double jeopardy where a defendant cannot be tried twice for the same crimes.
Federal prosecutor Bernard Michel also urged the court to drop the case, adding there can be "no extra punishment" for Zerkani who had already received the maximum sentence in the first case.
Despite having denied all charges, Zerkani was originally sentenced in July 2015 to 12 years behind bars, but appealed. The higher court however chose to increase his sentence to the maximum 15-year term.
Emerging as a central figure in the jihadist super-cell behind the attacks in both Brussels and Paris, the jihad recruiter's influence was crucial to a vast terror network.
Zerkani's original conviction happened before the Islamic State bombings in March at Brussels airport and a metro station in the city, in which 32 people were killed, and the attacks in Paris in November 2015 when 130 died.
He was arrested by police in 2014 after he defied authorities for years with his off-the-radar recruitment of jihadists for Syria in the gritty Molenbeek district of Brussels.
His recruits included Najim Laachraoui, who blew himself up at Brussels airport and who had also prepared the explosives for the attacks in both Brussels and Paris.
Belgium is the European Union's biggest source of foreign jihadists per capita, with some 465 leaving for Syria and Iraq from a population of 11 million.
Source: Agence France Presse
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