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| Europe |
| Key Suspect Back In The Dock At Madrid Train Bombing Trial |
| 2007-02-24 |
| The high security trial of 29 people suspected of involvement in the deadly March 2004 bombings of commuter trains in the Spanish capital, Madrid, will resume on Monday. A key defendant, the Egyptian Rabei Ousmane Sayed Ahmed will again appear in court after refusing to answer questions from the prosecution last Thursday - the opening day of the trial. He is charged with 191 murders, 1,824 attempted murders and with running a terrorist organisation. He denies the charges and has said he condemns the Madrid train bombings - the worst al-Qaeda inspired terrorist acts on European soil - which killed 191 people and wounded over 1,800. Ahmed's lawyer asked for the trial to be interrupted last week so that his client could listen once again to phone taps made by Italian police in which Ahmed is allegedly heard saying the 11 March 2004 attacks "was all my idea, and took a lot of patience and preparation." In the phone taps, a voice investigators allege is Ahmed's is heard calling the Madrid bombers "martrys and my brothers." One of the allleged chief plotters behind the attacks, Ahmed faces some 38,000 years in jail if convicted. He was arrested on 7 June, 2004 in Italy and was extradited to Spain. Police bugged one of the Milan apartments he lived in and his mobile. At another address he had lived at, a note with the words "11-03-04, martyr, explosive,' was found, according to investigators. During the pre-trial investigation, Ahmed, nicknamed "Mohammed the Egyptian," said he did not recognise the voice in the various recorded conversations as his. Seven Arab key suspects - including Ahmed - each face a sentence of some 40,000 years jail if convicted. Under Spanish law, the maximum term any individual can serve is 40 years, however. Prosecutors have asked for sentences totalling over 270,000 years for the 29 suspects, many of whom are Moroccan. More than 600 witnesses and 100 forensic experts have been called to give evidence at the trial, which is expected to last five-six months. A source at Spain's High Court described the trial - which has taken three years to prepare - as the most complicated case the country has seen. The three-judge panel is led by Javier Gomez Bermudez, who also presided over a trial of 24 suspected al-Qaeda members in 2005. Close to 100,000 pages of evidence prepared by the state prosecutor details how the Islamist cell developed in Spain, allegedly financed the plot by selling hashish and ecstasy pills, and how they made contact with former miners in northern Spain to purchase dynamite for the attacks. Nine Spaniards are charged with supplying and delivering explosives to the cell. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #8 perhaps they can pipe in Accordion musak Everyone, POLKA!!! Oomp papa, Oomp papa! |
| Posted by: Chiper Threreger8956 2007-02-24 22:30 |
| #7 And be sure to tie his hands behind his back. |
| Posted by: Redneck Jim 2007-02-24 22:18 |
| #6 You really don't have to go to that trouble. Just let him watch regular shows. Pretty soon, he'll be seething like mad. |
| Posted by: Jackal 2007-02-24 20:54 |
| #5 C'mon, you guys. It's easier than that. Just make him watch Britney Spears and Madonna videos. |
| Posted by: Elmereter Hupash6222 2007-02-24 14:53 |
| #4 Put him in a BIG cell with all-metal walls (good for echos), and pipe in whale "songs" at 120dB, 23 hours a day. Even 40 days of that will feel like 38,000 years. |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2007-02-24 14:25 |
| #3 perhaps they can pipe in Accordion musak |
| Posted by: Frank G 2007-02-24 07:57 |
| #2 Yep, 40 years with nothing to read but the Big Encyclopedia of Math Word Problems. /G. Larson |
| Posted by: Shipman 2007-02-24 06:27 |
| #1 Ahmed faces some 38,000 years in jail... the maximum term any individual can serve is 40 years I think I have a solution to this discrepancy. Render Ahmed into a zombie state and his 40 years would feel like 38,000. /pure unadulterated evil mode off |
| Posted by: twobyfour 2007-02-24 04:58 |