Word: osman
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...appeal to the Spanish newspaper ABC, chief prosecutor Javier Zaragoza maintained that the two charges were not identical. "Different people were implicated, different criminal activities committed - the Italian conviction doesn't include all the activities of the group that developed in Spain," he said. According to Zaragoza's interpretation, Osman was involved with two separatist organizations, and can therefore be convicted separately for membership in each...
...Prosecutors are not challenging Osman's acquittal for allegedly planning the attack. Rather, they question the judges' ruling on the charge that he belonged to a terrorist organization. Lead judge Javier Gómez Bermúdez, writing for the court, grounded that acquittal on the principle of non bis in idem, or double jeopardy, arguing that because Osman has already been convicted for membership in a terrorist organization by an Italian court, he cannot be found guilty for the same crime by the Spanish...
...that the sentence in the first case be "firm" - that is, that it can no longer be appealed through normal judicial routes. In his sentence, Bermúdez referred twice to the firmness of the Italian conviction, justifying the acquittal in part on the assertion that the sentence that Osman received - 10 years in prison - could not be changed. However, two days before Bermúdez presented that verdict, an appeals court in Milan did just that, reducing Osman's sentence to eight years. And it turns out that Osman is mounting another appeal. Spanish prosecutor Olga Sánchez...
...believes Bermúdez was justified even if appeals were still going on. "Spain's Constitutional Court changed things a few years ago, ruling in one case that all appeals don't have to be exhausted," he says. "It's enough that the process is under way." Endika Zulueta, Osman's lawyer, sides with Queralt. In an e-mail, he writes, "I will contest the appeal because I think the law supports Rabei Osman's acquittal. Even if the sentence is written in such a way that could lead to a mistake, the principle of non bis in idem clearly...
...what; should investigations carry on or not - continues to be the favorite sport of Spanish politicians. On Tuesday, the Congress of Deputies debated whether the opposition Popular Party had mounted a "media jihad" in its efforts to prove that ETA was indeed involved in the attacks. The uncertainty surrounding Osman's sentence will just give them one more thing to argue about...