Spain clears Syrians of terror financing

A Spanish court has cleared two Syrian-born men of indictments for alleged terrorist financing, according to court documents viewed by CNN on Monday.

The indictments, issued last year, were dropped last week against Bassam Dalati Satut and Mohamed Ghaleb Kalaje Zouaydi, although Kalaje is still serving a nine-year sentence for membership in a terrorist group, from a conviction in 2005 in Spain, court and prison officials told CNN.

A three-judge panel at the National Court, which hears terrorism cases, cleared the two of indictments issued in April 2007, that had accused Kalaje of membership in a terrorist group and accused Satut of the lesser charge of collaboration with a terrorist group.

Satut was acquitted in 2005 of belonging to a terrorist group, at a trial in which 18 of the 24 defendants, including Kalaje, were convicted of Islamic terrorist activities, court records show.

Spain's Supreme Court in 2006 overturned three of the lower court's convictions from that 2005 sentence, leaving 15 convicted, in what was one of Europe's largest trials involving operatives allegedly linked to al Qaeda.

In the latest case, the alleged crime of Satut and Kalaje, according to the indictments, was liquidating a company's accounts of thousands of dollars and allegedly diverting the funds to finance Islamic terrorist activities.

The National Court threw out the indictments on Thursday but the ruling did not became available to the media until Monday.

In clearing Satut and Kalaje, the court said the indictments were not backed by sufficient evidence to show that the two suspects, especially Kalaje - who was in prison on a prior terrorism conviction - had carried out terrorist financing.

Source: CNN