From: MSN NicknameEagle_wng (Original Message) Sent: 9/9/2006 11:33 AM France Expels Algerian Imam for Helping Chechnya? Publication time: 8 September 2006, 10:46 France expelled an Algerian imam convicted of a vague "involvement in a 2002 bomb plot in Paris and of helping to recruit fighters for Chechnya". He was taken into custody on Tuesday evening and put aboard a flight to Algeria on Thursday.
Chellali ben Chellali, imam of a mosque in Venissieux, a suburb in the eastern city of Lyon, was originally captured in January, 2004 in connection with a "suspected plot to attack Russian targets in Paris, possibly using chemical weapons". "The imam and his family also "planned an attack on the Eiffel Tower", the police alleged.
The court ruled the police fantasies completely false and convicted imam only of a vague "involvement in a 2002 bomb plot in Paris and of helping to recruit fighters for Chechnya".
Ben Chellali's wife and two sons were also convicted of involvement in the "plot", while a third son spent two years in Guantanamo Bay after being captured in Afghanistan in 2001.
Ben Chellali and other defendants in the original case were found guilty of "criminal association in relation with a terrorist enterprise", a broad charge which conveniently covers numerous "crimes".
Ben Chellali, who had spent 14 months in provisional custody between 2004 and 2005 was given an 18-month prison term, including six months in custody in June, but had appealed against the sentence. He had also appealed against the expulsion order.
"It's a kidnapping. They've stopped the justice system doing its job," his lawyer Beranger Tourne said.
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