Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Media: AFP
Byline: N/A
Date: 6 Sept 2006
THE HAGUE, Sept 6, 2006 (AFP) - The Dutch Supreme Court has authorized the
extradition of an Iraqi-born Dutch man facing the first US criminal charges
related to the Iraqi insurgency, legal documents released Wednesday showed.
Wesam Al Delaema, 32, was indicted by the US Justice Department last year on
charges that include conspiring to kill US citizens abroad and teaching how
to make explosives.
The high court rejected a legal challenge against a lower court's decision
to allow the extradition to go forward.
Lawyers for Al Delaema say they fear that he would not get a fair trial in
the United States, and that he is afraid of being tortured there.
It is now up to Justice Minister Piet Hein Donner to make the final decision
in the case.
According to US authorities, Al Delaema traveled to Iraq in October 2003
from the Netherlands "and met with a group of co-conspirators calling
themselves the 'Mujahideen from Fallujah,' who declared their intentions to
kill Americans."
Al Delaema and his co-conspirators allegedly hid explosives on a road in the
area of Fallujah, Iraq.
The suspect, arrested by Dutch authorities in May last year and charged with
planning attacks on US forces in Iraq, also allegedly figured in an October
2003 video showing insurgents planning an attack on a US convoy.
During the hearings related to the extradition demand, Al Delaema told a
Rotterdam court that he was innocent of the facts in the US indictment
"because he was forced to commit these acts."
He said he was kidnapped by insurgents while he was in Iraq to attend a
wedding and forced to film their activities.
Byline: N/A
Date: 6 Sept 2006
THE HAGUE, Sept 6, 2006 (AFP) - The Dutch Supreme Court has authorized the
extradition of an Iraqi-born Dutch man facing the first US criminal charges
related to the Iraqi insurgency, legal documents released Wednesday showed.
Wesam Al Delaema, 32, was indicted by the US Justice Department last year on
charges that include conspiring to kill US citizens abroad and teaching how
to make explosives.
The high court rejected a legal challenge against a lower court's decision
to allow the extradition to go forward.
Lawyers for Al Delaema say they fear that he would not get a fair trial in
the United States, and that he is afraid of being tortured there.
It is now up to Justice Minister Piet Hein Donner to make the final decision
in the case.
According to US authorities, Al Delaema traveled to Iraq in October 2003
from the Netherlands "and met with a group of co-conspirators calling
themselves the 'Mujahideen from Fallujah,' who declared their intentions to
kill Americans."
Al Delaema and his co-conspirators allegedly hid explosives on a road in the
area of Fallujah, Iraq.
The suspect, arrested by Dutch authorities in May last year and charged with
planning attacks on US forces in Iraq, also allegedly figured in an October
2003 video showing insurgents planning an attack on a US convoy.
During the hearings related to the extradition demand, Al Delaema told a
Rotterdam court that he was innocent of the facts in the US indictment
"because he was forced to commit these acts."
He said he was kidnapped by insurgents while he was in Iraq to attend a
wedding and forced to film their activities.