Paris: Ten people have gone on trial in Paris for alleged links to the financing of a jihadist movement that the UN Security Council considers an affiliate of al-Qaeda.
The trial beginning today comes four years after the suspects, mostly Turkish-speaking, were rounded up in a police sweep in France, Germany and the Netherlands. It is poised to bring to light a funding path for the global jihadist movement.
The defendants are suspected of collecting funds for the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, which the United Nations listed as an al-Qaeda affiliate, Osama bin Laden and the Taliban just weeks after the September 11, 2001 attacks.
They are also accused of ties to an Islamic militant sentenced for plotting to crash a plane into the mausoleum of the founder of modern Turkey.
PTI
