Spain acquits Sept 11 suspect of conspiracy charge

MADRID, June 1 (Reuters) Spain's Supreme Court today acquitted the only person convicted of involvement in the September 11 attacks in a trial last year of suspected Al Qaeda members.

Imad Eddin Barakat Yarkas, known as Abu Dahdah, had been convicted of conspiracy to commit terrorist murder and sentenced to 27 years in jail. He will, however, continue to serve a 12 year sentence for leading a terrorist group.

Yarkas, accused of being an al Qaeda leader in Spain, was among 24 people tried in the High Court last year for belonging to the Islamist militant group.

Eighteen were convicted, mostly of belonging to or cooperating with al Qaeda. Of those, three appeals were accepted by the Supreme Court today while the other 14 appeals were dismissed.

Three men in September's trial -- Europe's biggest against suspected Islamist militants -- were accused of 2,973 murders in connection with the September 11 attacks on the United States but only Yarkas was convicted for conspiracy with the attackers.

The High Court ruled there was no proof that Syrian-born Yarkas took part in the attacks but said there was evidence he helped think up the plot, working with a radical cell in Hamburg.

Spain's public prosecutor had urged the Supreme Court to overturn the conspiracy conviction, calling the evidence ''weak and inconsistent''.

''We must absolve, and we do absolve, Imad Eddin Barakat Yarkas of the crime of conspiracy to commit terrorist murder for which he was accused,'' the court said today One of the men whose appeals were dismissed today was Al Jazeera journalist Tayseer Alouni, who was sentenced to 7 years in jail for collaborating with a terrorist group, a ruling that drew strong criticism from international media groups.

REUTERS SI HS2006