8 EL HASKI v. BELGIUM JUDGMENT taking part in the Riyadh bombings of 12 May 2003, for which an arrest warrant had also been delivered against him; - his participation in training specifically given to Islamist terrorist groups, as inferred from his own statements and those of individuals held in Morocco; - the applicant’s links with other members of the GICM’s Belgian cell. The Court of Appeal then noted that the applicant was one of the GICM’s leaders, a fact that could be sufficiently inferred from the statements taken in Morocco and France and from his role as coordinator for the GICM members in Belgium. 41. Lastly, the Court of Appeal found that “the acts committed by the defendants fell clearly within the context of a movement whose aim was to further, by violence and intolerance, the cause of a radical form of Islam, directly threatening the religious and philosophical pluralism that existed in democratic societies and the fundamental rights of their citizens, such as freedom of thought and freedom of expression”, and that the sanction should be “commensurate with this very serious breach of public safety and democratic order”. In sentencing the applicant, the court added as follows: “... It should be pointed out that the defendant played a major role within the GICM’s religious committee; that he was subsequently responsible for the Belgian and French cells of the GICM, together with the defendant [O]. As has already been mentioned, his duties in the Belgian cell mainly consisted in: directing the collection of funds that would serve to finance the group’s activities after the arrest of [N.]; playing a coordinating role between the members of the Belgian cell and those of the Belgian and French cells; and maintaining contact with numerous members of cells based in other countries. The acts committed by the defendant are clearly of a serious nature because they were committed: by an individual who, in particular, travelled on numerous occasions to Afghanistan, Chechnya, Turkey, Mauritania, Saudi Arabia and Syria to establish international relations between the members of the various cells of the terrorist group; by a professional who followed military training in Afghanistan and training in group leadership and who dispensed religious training as part of the responsibilities entrusted to him within the GICM; by an extremist who has no respect for the physical integrity of others and who is prepared to undermine international public safety, by making possible the use of violent methods to ensure that his opinions prevail. The features of the defendant’s personality, as can be seen from the case file, are a matter of concern. It should be pointed out in this connection that the defendant: has already been known for many years at an international level for his terrorist activities and is also wanted by the Moroccan judicial authorities under an international arrest warrant; resided illegally in Belgium for several months and did not lodge an asylum request with the aliens office until June 2004; cannot prove any means of subsistence and seems to survive only with the support of other members of the terrorist group. ..” 42. The applicant and some of his co-defendants appealed on points of law.