 The verdict on those accused of involvement in Europe's worst Islamist terrorist attack will be announced in a Spanish court today after a trial that has lasted four months and 17 days and heard testimony from more than 300 witnesses.
| Ten bombs packed with dynamite and nails exploded on four trains heading into central Madrid, killing 191 people and injuring nearly 1,800. |
If found guilty, 19 men, mostly of Moroccan origin, will be sentenced on charges of planning and carrying out the bombings on the morning of March 11 2004, as thousands of commuters made their way to work. Ten bombs packed with dynamite and nails exploded on four trains heading into central Madrid, killing 191 people and injuring nearly 1,800. It was the worst act of terrorism in Europe since the bombing of a Pan Am flight over Lockerbie in 1988, which claimed 270 lives. Nine Spaniards, including one woman, are also accused of providing the explosives used by the alleged terrorists.
The eight main defendants could serve 40 years, the longest possible in Spain regardless of the sentence actually passed. Other alleged conspirators face between four and 27 years. All of the accused have pleaded not guilty.
| All will serve less than ten years after time all and Y'urp-peon hospitality. |
Three weeks after the bombings, seven of the alleged ringleaders blew themselves up as Spanish police surrounded them in a flat where they were hiding out, taking with them vital evidence. Among the dead were Serhane Ben Abdelmajid, known as the Tunisian and the alleged mastermind of the plot, and Jamal Ahmidan, a hashish trafficker turned fundamentalist nicknamed the Chinaman.
At least four suspects, including two who may have been central to the attack, have disappeared. One is understood to have died in a suicide attack in Iraq.
The figure who drew most attention at the trial was Rabei Osman, said to be the link between the Madrid bombers and other Islamist terrorist groups. Mr Osman, also known as the Egyptian, was arrested in Milan in June 2004 after allegedly saying in wiretapped conversations that he planned the train bombings. Mr Osman claims he has been mistranslated, and condemned the attacks during the trial.
| Just a little misdirection for the benefit of us infidels. Did he say it publicly in Arabic? |
Suspects accused of planting the bombs include Jamal Zougam and Abdelmajid Bouchar. The latter is said to have fled the flat in Leganés just before the alleged ringleaders killed themselves.
Rogelio Alonso, a lecturer in politics and terrorism at the King Juan Carlos university, said he believed the trial had shown that "it is possible to fight this type of [Islamist] terrorism through the courts". He also said the investigation had uncovered a link between the Madrid suspects and the wider world of al-Qaida.
| It's not likely that all terrorists can be tried this way. As far as we know, there's no great secrets, no intel links, no sources compromised by the trial, and the defendants are stone cold guilty. We could have tried the 9/11 mooks, assuming any had lived, and convicted them, but look at the problems we've had with other terror-related trials in this country. |
However, Scott Atran, a US academic who has investigated the Hamburg cell connected to the 9/11 attacks as well as those behind the Bali bomb attacks of 2002, and who witnessed the trial, said: "There isn't the slightest bit of evidence of any relationship with al-Qaida. We've been looking at it closely for years and we've been briefed by everybody under the sun ... and nothing connects them."
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