Denmark: Glostrup terrorism suspect acquitted

Elias Ibn Hsain (19) a Moroccan-Dane, was acquitted by the Eastern High Court yesterday of terrorism charges for the second time.

Of the four original suspects in the Glostrup terrorism case, only Abdul Basit Abu-Lifa (18) was sentenced to seven years in prison. The two other acquitted suspects, IJ and AA, had already won compensation for the original trial.

Ibn Hsain was brought to trial again since the prosecution thought they found new and stronger evidence against him. This included telephone taps, that according to the prosecution, tied him and Abdul Basit to the two terrorists sentenced in Bosnia, "Maximus" and Abdulkadir Cesur. However, the jury didn't think that there was enough evidence.

After his acquittal Ibn Hsain told a journalist that justice had been done, but did not want to say more. Many friends and sympathizers were in attendance, and hugged the 19 year old over and over.

Prosecutor Jørgen Jensen was disappointed with the acquittal, but admitted that the evidence wasn't strong enough. However he doesn't think he and co-prosecutor Dorthe Vejsig had any other choice besides using the evidence, which existed of telephone taps, chats and SMS's, to show that Ibn Hsain was connected with the two terrorists who were caught with 20 kilo explosives in an apartment in Bosnia in October 2005.

The acquittal comes after the prosecution tried to prove that the suspect, who was 16 at the time, had a central role in the case. It was claimed that he had introduced the other three to each other, had sent Cesur to Bosnia for explosives, and that he was aware in general of what was going on.

According to the prosecution's first theory, suspect IJ (21), was the dominant person in the Danish part of the case, but he was acquitted just like AA and Ibn Hsain.

Sources: DR, BT 1, 2 (Danish), PR-inside (English)

See also: Denmark: International terrorism links, Denmark: Terror suspect supported by Outlandish star, Denmark: Responses after terror trial, Denmark: Freed terrorist suspect to receive compensation, Denmark: Glostrup acquitted terrorists live in uncertainly, Denmark: Connections between recent terror plots

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