Trial begins of Dutch suspected Islamist militants

AMSTERDAM, Oct 16 (Reuters) A 20-year-old Dutch-Moroccan went on trial today charged with planning attacks, in a high-profile case regarded as a test of tougher anti-terrorism laws passed since his acquittal last year.

Samir Azzouz appeared in a special high-security courtroom dubbed ''the bunker'' on charges of belonging to a terrorist group, planning to attack politicians and possessing weapons. A verdict is due next month.

Dutch prosecutors say they have gathered fresh evidence and can now use tougher laws in trying to secure a conviction of Azzouz, whose acquittal sparked debate about how close a suspect must come to detonating a bomb to be found guilty.

Five others are also on trial including a 23-year-old woman, Soumaya Sahla, who is charged along with her husband. The pair chatted and exchanged smiles during the proceedings.

Prosecutors told the court how Azzouz and his co-defendants were found in possession of automatic weapons, a revolver and ammunition, manuals explaining how to turn mobile phones into detonators and computer files of jihad training manuals.

Prosecution documents state Azzouz had asked a man to help him carry out a suicide attack on the headquarters of the AIVD Dutch security forces.

He had also prepared a video message, screened last month on Dutch television, in which he stated in Arabic ''we will spill your blood here as you have spilled the blood of Muslim citizens in Iraq.'' Amsterdam-born Azzouz, who has become a household name in the Netherlands, was first arrested in a police crackdown which followed the murder by another Dutch-Moroccan of filmmaker Theo van Gogh in 2004.

He was acquitted in 2005 of charges he planned attacks although he received a three-month prison sentence for possession of weapons, which he served.

INCREASING RADICALISATION The court ruled he had ''terrorist intent'' but his preparations were so primitive they posed no real threat.

He was rearrested in October 2005 on suspicion of a new plot after intense surveillance by Dutch security forces.

The Dutch government has said the country faces a significant threat of terrorist attack and raised its alert level to ''substantial'', the second highest in a four-stage warning system, after bomb attacks in London on July 7, 2005.

The country's co-ordinator for anti-terrorism said in a statement today the continuing radicalisation of young Dutch Muslims was a worrying trend, and fuelled by frustration over the status of Muslims at home and anger over conflicts abroad.

Azzouz's court appearances and arrests have coincided with a period in which the Dutch have agonised over the apparent failure of their multicultural model, grappled with the aftermath of a political murder and cracked down on suspected Islamist militants as fears of home-grown terror increase.

Speaking by telephone from prison Azzouz told Dutch television last month he had been demonised by an Islamophobic, paranoid state, and would seek political asylum in Cuba.

REUTERS SSC BS1743