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| Europe |
| Charges to be filed against 3/11 killers |
| 2006-03-06 |
| CHARGES are set to be issued shortly against some 40 suspects in connection with the March 2004 train bombings in Madrid as the second anniversary of the blasts which killed 191 people approaches, a judicial source said overnight. A total of 116 people are under investigation for the March 11 blasts on four Madrid commuter trains, for which Islamic extremists sympathetic to Al-Qaeda have claimed responsibility. But the source said only "a figure probably much reduced", likely around one third, would be charged and brought to trial for Spain's worst-ever terror attack, in which nearly 2,000 people were also injured. Of the suspects, 24 are in jail in Spain and a further one is in prison in Italy. The remainder are free but have had various restrictions imposed upon them. The source said that judge Juan del Olmo, who is in charge of the investigations, would "in the next few days" hand over the dossier on completion of his pre-trial investigations. Under Spanish law, suspects can spend up to two years in pre-trial detention, but this can be extended following hearings. The trial is expected to start in late 2006 and last around a year. To date, only one person has been convicted over the attacks, a 16-year-old who in November 2004 pleaded guilty to transporting explosives stolen from a mine in the Asturias region of northern Spain and also to collaborating with a terrorist group. The youth, nicknamed el Gitanillo or "little gypsy", received six years detention in a youth prison. A large quantity of information regarding where the bombs were assembled and where the explosives came from is already known, but the indictments are expected to reveal further details, such as who is believed to have planned the attacks. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #1 Yea, yea. |
| Posted by: gromgoru 2006-03-06 04:34 |