Fourteen men, including the jailed killer of a Dutch filmmaker, went on trial in Amsterdam today accused of plotting attacks and membership in a terrorist network.
Dutch police arrested the men after the murder of filmmaker Theo van Gogh last November by Mohammed Bouyeri.
Bouyeri was sentenced to life in jail earlier this year. He and most of the other men are descendants of Moroccan immigrants.
The trial is a key test of a new Dutch law, which introduced the charge of "membership of a criminal organisation with terrorist intent" carrying a maximum sentence of 15 years.
Another suspected Islamic militant, Samir Azzouz, who was arrested before the new law came into force, was acquitted earlier this year on charges he planned attacks on prominent buildings, prompting calls for still tougher legislation.
Two of the suspects, Jason Walters and Ismail Akhnikh, will also be tried for trying to kill police officers with a hand grenade when they arrested them and for threats to two prominent politicians, who went into hiding after Van Gogh's murder.
A third suspect, Nouriddin El Fatmi, also called Fouad, is charged with weapons offenses for carrying a loaded pistol.
Van Gogh's killing on November 2nd, 2004 stoked tensions with the one million Muslims living in the Netherlands, about a third of whom have Moroccan roots, and prompted a wave of tit-for-tat attacks on mosques, religious schools and churches.
