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Madrid bombings trial: Key defendant denies involvement

From Al Goodman
CNN Madrid Bureau Chief

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MADRID, Spain (CNN) -- The Madrid train bombings trial is under way, nearly three years after terrorists killed 191 people and wounded more than 1,800 on morning rush-hour commuter trains in the Spanish capital.

The trial began Thursday with a key defendant refusing to give evidence and denying involvement in the bombings. Rabei Osman El Sayed Ahmed, 35, of Egypt also condemned the attacks "unconditionally and completely."

Twenty-nine defendants, including many Moroccans, are in the dock. Prosecutors say locally based Islamic terrorists, inspired by al Qaeda, carried out the attack, aided by some Spaniards accused of trafficking in explosives that ended up in the hands of the Islamic suspects.

Seven defendants are considered prime suspects, and each would face sentences of about 38,000 years in prison for mass murder, if convicted, according to a prosecution order issued last November. The other 22 face lesser charges. (Watch Ahmed refuse to answer questions as trial opens )

Among the prime defendants are three men thought to be among the ideologues of the attacks. Prosecutors identified them as Ahmed, also known as "Mohammed the Egyptian," Youssef Belhadj, 30, and Hassan el Haski, 43, both of Morocco.

Ahmed, who is accused of orchestrating the attacks, was the first to take the stand Thursday but refused to give evidence.

"I know nothing about these accusations," Ahmed said through an interpreter. "With all respect, I am not going to answer any questions even from my lawyer."

Under questioning by his attorney, he later said: "I never had any relation to the events which occurred in Madrid."

Ahmed said he condemned the Madrid bombings "unconditionally and completely." He also condemned the September 11, 2001, attacks in the United States and the London subway bombings of 2005.

"This is a conviction I have very clearly and absolutely," he said.

Three other defendants are suspected of putting some of the bombs on the four trains that were torn apart by the explosions. They were identified as Jamal Zougam, 33, and Abdelmajid Bouchar, 24, both of Morocco, and Basel Ghalyoun, 26, of Syria.

The seventh prime defendant is Jose Emilio Suarez Trashorras, 30, of Spain, considered a "necessary cooperator" in the attacks by allegedly facilitating the explosives that were manufactured in Spain and stolen from a mine in the north.

Spanish law prohibits the death penalty, and even if convicted on all charges, the defendants would serve no more than 40 years in prison, according to Spanish law, the prosecution said.

All 29 were indicted last April and all profess innocence, court officials and some of their lawyers told CNN.

The coordinated bombings of four trains on March 11, 2004, was the deadliest terrorist attack in Western Europe since the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, that killed 270 people.

Tight security around courthouse

Under tight security, a three-judge panel of the National Court are hearing the case in a special courthouse on the western outskirts of Madrid. Four cameras, controlled by the court, are providing live broadcast pictures of the trial.

Eighteen of the 29 defendants are in pre-trial prison and will be brought under police escort to the courthouse and seated in a bulletproof glass enclosure in the courtroom.

The other 11, accused of lesser roles, will be seated in a special section of open court, because they are free on provisional liberty, with the condition that they report regularly to authorities.

Most of the 29 will have court-appointed lawyers because they could not afford a private defense attorney, said Eduardo Garcia Pena, one of the lawyers representing the defendants.

The trial, with hundreds of witnesses, is expected to last until the summer, and a verdict could come by autumn.

Spain's Interior Ministry increased the nation's alert status this week from low to medium, bringing increased police patrols at public places such as transit stations. (Full story)

"There's always an increased threat when you broadcast worldwide a trial and you show to the last corner of the Earth that terrorism has a firm response from the courts in a state of law," chief prosecutor Javier Zaragoza said in an interview with Spanish TV Cuatro.

Western officials tell CNN that Spain remains under threat and that Spanish authorities have dozens of hard-core Islamic radicals under surveillance.

Spanish police have arrested 200 Islamic terrorist suspects in the country since the bombings, for various alleged plots.

To date only one person, who was then 16 years old, has been convicted in the attacks. He was the only minor charged in the case. In November 2004 the Spanish youth pleaded guilty to transporting explosives stolen from a mine in northern Spain and of collaborating with a terrorist group.

Seven other key suspects in the bombings blew themselves up three weeks after the attacks in 2004 as police closed in on their hideout in a Madrid suburb.

Alleged roots of attack detailed

The prosecution document says the beginnings of the Madrid attack could be seen in the merger in June 2001 of al Qaeda and the Egyptian Islamic Jihad terrorist groups, "creating an organization capable of coordinating a worldwide network that leads and provides cover for the actions of numerous Sunni Islamic extremist groups deployed from Europe to Southeast Asia."

The attacks in Spain took root, the document said, after various al Qaeda operatives were arrested in Spain in late 2001, following the September 11 attacks in the United States.

The plot gained momentum after Spain sent troops to Iraq in support of the U.S.-led coalition there in 2003, the prosecution said.

But the "final trigger" was Osama bin Laden's message broadcast on October 18, 2003, on Al-Jazeera TV, which mentioned Spain, along with some other Western countries, as targets to attack, says a prosecution document from last November.

The technique of using cell phones as timers and connected to the explosives was a method taught at a terrorist training camp in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, a prosecution document says.

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