MADRID, June 1: Spain’s supreme court on Thursday quashed the conviction of Syrian Imad Eddin Barakat Yarkas for ‘conspiracy’ in the September 2001 attacks in the United States, for which he was sentenced in September last year.

The court, however, confirmed the conviction for membership of the Al Qaeda terror organisation, a judicial source said.

The ruling, on the grounds of lack of evidence for the charge, means that Yarkas, also known as Abu Dahdah, will only have to serve 12 of the 27 years to which he was sentenced at the end of Europe’s biggest trial of Al Qaeda suspects.

The case resulted in the sentencing of 24 defendants to terms which were generally much lower than those sought by the prosecution.

The supreme court on Thursday also quashed three other convictions for belonging to or collaborating with a terrorist organisation.

Sadik Mereziak and Abdelaziz Benaich had been sentenced to eight years in prison for belonging to Al Qaeda, and Driss Chebli had a six-year prison sentence for collaborating with a terror organisation.—AFP