A Belgian court today found a Tunisian-born former professional soccer player guilty of plotting to attack a NATO base for al-Qaeda.
The Brussels court convicted Mr Nizar ben Abdelaziz Trabelsi of planning to blow himself up at Belgium's Kleine Brogel air base, which houses US soldiers and suspected nuclear weapons.
Prosecutors said Trabelsi (33) who played for German Bundesliga team Fortuna Duesseldorf in the 1980s, met al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden several times in Afghanistan before accepting the suicide mission.
He was arrested in Brussels soon after the September 11th, 2001, attacks on the US. "Everything points to the fact that on the evening before his arrest, he was determined to carry out this project," Judge Claire Degryse said in passing sentence at the heavily guarded Brussels Criminal Court.
In the absence of specific anti-terrorism legislation in Belgium, Trabelsi faces a maximum 10-year jail term. Sentencing will take place at a later date.
Trabelsi was one of 23 suspected al-Qaeda collaborators on trial for a series of alleged offences on behalf of the Islamic militant network.