Syrian on multiple Madrid charges
From CNN Madrid Bureau Chief Al Goodman
MADRID, Spain (CNN) -- A Syrian man has been charged with 190 counts of murder and nearly 1,500 counts of attempted murder in the Madrid train bombings.
Basel Ghayoun was accused of planting a bomb aboard a train in the synchronized attacks on March 11.
Judge Juan del Olmo also charged Ghayoun with four counts of terrorist damage to the trains and one count of belonging to a terrorist group.
Two witnesses, including one who was wounded in the bombings, have said they saw Ghayoun on the day of the attacks, according to a court spokeswoman.
Fourteen suspects -- including Moroccans, Spaniards, two Indians and now a Syrian -- have now been charged in the bombings.
Multiple bombs ripped through four trains at three stations on March 11 in one of the deadliest terrorist attacks in Europe since World War II.
The attacks killed 190 people and wounded more than 1,800 others.
Authorities believe the bombs were planted on the trains in backpacks or small gym bags, with the explosives hooked up to cell phones and timed to go off according to alarms set on the cell phones.
The court spokeswoman said Ghayoun acknowledged that he knows several of the people already charged in the case, including one of the prime suspects, a Moroccan by the name of Jamal Zougam.
Zougam, 30, has been linked to a cell phone found with one of the unexploded bombs from the train attacks.
Ghayoun was one of five people arraigned Monday, but only one other was charged.
Hamid Ahmidan of Morocco was charged with collaborating with a terrorist group and drug possession, far lesser charges than those against Ghayoun.
Three other men -- two Moroccans and a Syrian -- were set free without any charges pressed against them.
One of the men released was a roommate of Ghayoun's who had done advanced studies in Spain and Germany in the study of electronics.
The judge said there was not enough evidence against him.
Another was described as an appliance repairman who once rented a room to Ghayoun.
