Italy's top criminal court on Thursday upheld the conviction on international terrorism charges of an Egyptian jailed as one of the chief suspects in the 2004 Madrid train bombings, a lawyer said. The Court of Cassation confirmed the conviction of Rabei Osman and upheld a previous eight-year jail sentence by a Milan appeals court, said lawyer Luca D'Auria.Osman's lawyer said his client remained jailed in the northern town of Voghera and has served four years of his sentence. Osman was arrested in Italy in June 2004 after allegedly saying in wiretapped conversations that he was the mastermind of the March 11 attacks. He has repeatedly denied it was his voice in the calls.
Previous rulings found Osman had ties to the terror cell that carried out the bombings on the Madrid commuter rail system that killed 191 people and wounded more than 1,800.
Spanish courts have also tried Osman. He was acquitted on mass murder charges for insufficient evidence, while judges ruled that because he had been sentenced in Italy for association with a terror group, he could not be condemned again for the same crime. Osman was living in a Milan apartment after the bombings, and Spanish authorities tipped off the Italians to his presence.