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November 6, 2006
Spain: Bin Laden "Ordered Madrid Bombings"
Expatica relates that a message from Osama bin Laden acted as the trigger for the Madrid train bombings of March 11, 2004, which killed 191 people. The blasts indirectly brought down the PP (Popular Party) government of José Maria Aznar, when his interior minister, Angel Acebes, had said that the attaks were the handiwork of ETA, despite evidence of Muslim involvement. Three days after the attacks, there was a general election, and the minority left-wing PSOE (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party) of José Luis Rodríguez Zapotero won the election.
Today, El Mundo reported that Javier Zaragoza, the national court prosecutor, has claimed that a message broadcast on Al Jazeera five months before the attacks was instrumental in causing the terror attack. In this message, Bin Laden had called for the return of Al-Andalus, the Muslim name for the Moorish kingdom which lasted in Spain until the Reconquista.
It is also reported in El Pais newspaper that Zaragoza is asking for maximum sentences for the seven main individuals accused of the bombings. Indicted on April 11, these and 22 others will be facing trial in February next year.
Zaragoza has said he will press for 40,000 year jail terms for each of the suspects who are thought to be the "main players" in the Madrid bombing.
These are Jamal Zougam, Basel Ghalyoun, Abdelmajid Bouchar, Rabei Osman Sayed Ahmed (the "Egyptian"), Youssef Belhadj, Hassan el Haski and José Emilio Suárez Trashorras.
Zaragoza will ask for 30 years jail for each of the 191 people killed in the attacks, and 18 years for each of the 1,820 people who were wounded.
Trashorras, a former miner from Asturias in the north of Spain, was arrested on 18 March 2004. He is said to have given the bombers the plastic explosives used in the attack. It is alleged that he exchanged the explosives for drugs and cash. His wife, Carmen Maria Tora Castro, the only woman among those indicted, is charged with trafficking explosives.
Trashorras will be facing a new additional charge of associating with an illicit group of terrorists.
The main ringleaders of the group will never face justice. On April 3, 2004, the suspected ringleader of the Madrid cell, a Tunisian named Sarhane ben Abdelmajid Fakhet was with six associates in an apartment in Leganes, a Madrid suburb. Police assembled to make an arrest, when a bomb was detonated from within the apartment, killing all inside, as well as one policeman, and injuring 11 officers and 7 others. Fakhet (nicknamed "el Tunecino", or the Tunisian) and Ahmidan ("el Chino", or the Chinese), were killed in the Leganes apartment blast.
The remaining 22 individuals who are to face trial will be expected to receive between four and 30 years.
Though Zaragoza will ask for 40,000 year sentences for the main seven accused, none of these will serve more than 30 years if convicted. 30 years is the maximum time a person can be jailed under Spanish law.
El Pais also reported today that four people have been arrested in Madrid, on suspicion of document forgery, in connection with Islamist terror operations. The arrests happened at various locations in the capital.
Three of the arrestees are Algerian, and the fourth is an Egyptian. It is thought that they created false documents to enable mujahideen to enter Spanish territory after fighting in Iraq. Their network of document forgery could also enable Islamists to travel freely throughout the countries of the European Union.
21,600 Euros ($27,537) in cash have been taken by agents, as well as two laptops and other computer science material, several mobile phones and SIM cards, materials to falsify documents, and photocopies of passports and residence permits.
The arrested individuals have been only identified by their initials. B.M, aka Mujahed, is an Egyptian national, aged 58. Nasreddine B, aka Naser, was born in Constantina, Algeria, aged 45. Noureddine D, aka Kamal, aged 35, was born in Oued, Algeria, and an individual named Abdelkader T, aged 38, was born in Mostaganem, Algeria. A fifth individual is in custody, named Ali B, believed to be guilty of immigration offenses, whose identity was found among Noureddine D's addresses.
Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at November 6, 2006 11:18 PM
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