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| Europe |
| Yet another Moroccan mystery man for 3/11 |
| 2005-05-18 |
| A Moroccan man in jail for the 2003 Casablanca attacks inspired and indoctrinated militants who are prime suspects in the 2004 Madrid train bombings, a Spanish judge said on Wednesday. Mustapha Maimouni, 33, led a cell that singled out Spain for attack because of the previous government's support for the war in Iraq, the judge said, indicating Maimouni may have been a mastermind behind the Madrid bombings, which killed 191 people. "In Madrid, Maimouni summoned and radically indoctrinated (Madrid bombing suspects) and others who are the subject of other investigations with the goal of carrying out jihad (holy war)," Judge Fernando Grande-Marlaska wrote in a court order. The court order issued on Wednesday formally charged 13 people, including Maimouni, with belonging to a terrorist organization. The suspects, most of whom are in jail, were not directly charged with the train bombings. The order also sought the extradition of Maimouni from Morocco, where he was arrested in May 2003, shortly after the coordinated attacks in Casablanca by radical Islamists that killed 45 people, including 12 suicide bombers. The court document traced some of Spain's most wanted Islamist militants to a cell established by Maimouni in late 2002 or early 2003. "In these meetings it was agreed that as a consequence of Spain having entered the war in Iraq it became an enemy of Islam, and that's why they had to attack in this country," the judge said. In a video claiming responsibility for the Madrid attacks, masked men said they were taking revenge on Spain for sending troops to Iraq and Afghanistan. Among the others said to have come under the influence of Maimouni was Driss Chebli, one of 24 men currently on trial in Spain on charges of belonging to al Qaeda and one of three charged with mass murder for the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on U.S. cities. Grande-Marlaska, an investigating magistrate, is following a probe begun by Baltasar Garzon, who is on leave. It is one of nine investigations into suspected Islamist militant groups in Spain and separate from the inquiry into the commuter rail attacks in Madrid. Spanish investigators are still searching for the true mastermind or masterminds of the Madrid bombings, which struck three days before a general election. Among those the judge said were members of Maimouni's cell, though not charged, were prime train bombing suspects Serhane ben Abdelmajid Farkhet, also known as "The Tunisian," Rabei Osman Sayed Ahmed, alias "Mohamed the Egyptian," and Said Berraj. Farkhet was one of 24 men currently on trial in Spain on charges of belonging to al Qaeda and one of three charged with mass murder for the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on U.S. cities. Ahmed was arrested in Italy, and Berraj remains a fugitive. Investigators have assigned leadership roles to all of them in the Madrid attacks. Maimouni himself was recruited into jihad by Amer Azizi, one of Spain's most wanted fugitives, the judge said. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |