Spanish authorities investigating last month's Madrid train bombings jailed a Moroccan engineering student allegedly linked to the attacks' suspected ringleader and arrested three more suspects, court officials said Monday. The electrical engineering student, Fouad Almorabit, 28, was jailed Monday on charges of collaborating with a terrorist organization. During hours of questioning by Judge Juan del Olmo, Almorabit admitted knowing suspects in the March 11 attacks that killed 191 people but denied having any role in them, the officials said.
Almorabit was first arrested March 24, released and then arrested two more times, including Thursday, for further questioning. During that first arrest, authorities also seized Almorabit's roommate, Basel Ghayoun, a Syrian now jailed as a prime suspect. Del Olmo's decision to jail Almorabit raises to 18 the number of people charged in the case. Six are accused of mass murder and 12 of belonging to or collaborating with a terrorist organization. Fourteen of the 18 people charged in Spain's worst terrorist attack are Moroccan. The Spanish government says the focus of its probe is the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group, which has links to al-Qaida and is related to an organization blamed for last year's suicide bombings in Casablanca, Morocco, that killed 45 people, including 12 attackers. |