Madrid
Spain sentenced an al Qaida leader to 27 years in prison this week for abetting the 9/11 attacks. Imad Eddin Barakat Yarkas, 43, a Syrian-born Spanish national, arranged a meeting in Spain in June 2001 between hijacker Mohamed Atta and mastermind Ramzi bin al-Shibh. The terror cell Yarkas led was also believed to have carried out last year’s Madrid train bombings. Seventeen other members of the cell were sentenced to lesser terms. Prosecutors had sought a sentence for Yarkas of 75,000 years—25 years per victim, the maximum sentence for murder in Spain. But the judges found him guilty only of conspiracy to commit murder.
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