ABCNEWS.com : Two in UK Court Charged with Raising Terror Funds

ABCNEWS.com : Two in UK Court Charged with Raising Terror Funds

Feb. 5

— LEICESTER, England (Reuters) - Two Algerian men accused of supporting Osama bin Laden and his call for a Jihad against Americans and their allies, appeared in a British court Wednesday charged with raising money to fund terrorism.

Baghdad Meziane, 38,and Brahim Benmerzouga, 31, denied a charge of entering into an arrangement for the purposes of raising money for terrorism at the opening of a high security trial at Leicester Crown Court in central England.

They sat in the dock behind a bullet-proof window, flanked by armed police, and aided by a French-speaking interpreter.

Meziane has also pleaded not guilty to a charge of conspiring to defraud through the use or manufacture of fake bank, credit and charge cards while both men admitted possession of false passports and other documents.

Prosecutor Mark Ellison told the jury that the pair, who were arrested in the city on September 26 2001, had been found with materials that showed support for the ideology of bin Laden, who the United States blames for the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington.

"It is the prosecution case that the arrangements they became concerned in were for the purposes of supporting and promoting militant Islamic extremism which ...promotes the use or threat of terrorism as a means of advancement," he said.

"That is, a form of violent Jihad, sometimes referred to as holy war, against the enemies of Islam."

Ellison told the court that Meziane was an asylum-seeker while Benmerzouga was an illegal immigrant. Both had been under surveillance for some time before their arrest.

The court heard that both men had used false identities to open bank accounts and claim benefits under different names.