Good fruits of a new law. “Militants jailed on terror charges,” from the Herald Sun, with thanks to all who sent this in:
A DUTCH court has handed down sentences of up to 15 years to a group of nine Islamist militants it found guilty of belonging to a terrorist organisation, but acquitted four other suspects.
Prosecutors had demanded sentences of up to 20 years in a verdict seen as a test of tougher new anti-terrorism laws.
Similar trials for the charge of “membership of a criminal organisation with terrorist intent” have collapsed in the past.
Introduced in 2004, the charge is intended to enable militants to be convicted before the attacks they plan are carried out.
“The group … spread texts inciting violence and threatened terrorist crimes,” presiding judge Allard de Boer said.
“Threatening to carry out terrorist crimes strikes public order in the heart … He who sows hatred and preaches violence is laying the basis for crimes aimed at instilling fear in the population and to destroy the Dutch rule of law.”