AP and Fox are reporting that a Spanish court has convicted and sentenced to 27 years’ imprisonment Imad Yarkas, the leader of al Qaeda in Spain, for supporting the 9/11 plot.

Spain, which has indicted several people for participation in the 9/11 plot, charged Yarkas and Driss Chebli with setting up a crucial July 2001 final planning meeting between Mohamed Atta and Ramzi Binalshibh in the Tarragona region. Another man, Ghasoub al-Abrash Ghalyoun, was charged with surveilling the World Trade Center by video in 1997.

In today’s verdict, Yarkas was convicted of the 9/11 conspiracy (although not of the harsher murder charges). Chebli, also cleared of murder, was convicted of collaborating with al Qaeda. Ghalyoun was acquitted.

As usual, Ed Morrissey is making solid points over at Captain’s Quarters. He observes that the 9/11 Commission, despite the Spanish evidence, found that there was insufficient evidence to conclude that anyone in Spain met with or assisted Atta and Binalshibh in connection with the July 2001 meeting. Today’s result obviously casts substantial doubt on that finding.

Recall, along these lines, that the Commission contends that Mohamed Atta never met with anyone in the Czech Republic in June 2000 when, for some reason, he decided to come to the U.S. via Prague rather than coming straight from Germany. This, of course, makes it easier to dismiss – as the Commission essentially does – the allegation that Atta went to Prague in April 2001 to meet with an Iraqi intelligence officer.