By Jerry Markon
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, March 9, 2004; 5:19 PM
A federal judge in Alexandria today acquitted the final member of an alleged "Virginia jihad network," saying prosecutors had shown he was "very interested in violent jihad" but failed to prove that he fought with the former Taliban rulers of Afghanistan.
Sabri Benkhala, 28, had been charged with supplying services to the Taliban and firing an AK-47 automatic rifle and a rocket-propelled grenade in Afghanistan. If convicted, he would have faced a minimum of 30 years in prison.
After a one-day trial, U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema ruled that the government had not proved the case to the legal standard of "beyond a reasonable doubt." Only one witness said Benkhala had gone to Afghanistan, she said, and she found that witness "simply not believable."