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| Europe |
| Judge Indicts 29 For Madrid Train Bombings |
| 2006-04-11 |
| Madrid, 11 April (AKI) - A Spanish judge on Tuesday indicted 29 suspects in connection with the deadly al-Qaeda-linked train bombings in Madrid two years ago that killed 191 people and wounded 1,741 in a series of blasts on morning rush-hour commuter trains. One of the alleged ringleaders of the attacks, Jamal Zougam, was among those charged, by judge Juan Del Olomo, Spain's National Court announced. No-one has yet stood trial for the Madrid blasts - the deadliest terrror attacks in Western Europe since the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, that killed 270 people in 1988. The number of individuals indicted is far fewer than the 116 suspects who faced preliminary charges, and no trial is expected for months. The slow-pace of the judicial process has sparked criticism as unless the investigation is stepped up, some of the 25 defendants currently detained - 24 in Spanish jails and one Egyptian in the northern Italian city of Milan - might have to be released from custody before any trial ends. The attacks are believed to have been carried out by three al-Qaeda linked groups, made up largely of Moroccans. The three groups were allegedly augmented by other individuals linked to an al-Qaeda cell broken up in Spain in 2001. These groups were reportedly linked to a radical strain of Islam espoused by the North African Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group (GICM). The militants appear to have carried out the bombings on behalf of al-Qaeda in revenge for the presence of Spanish troops in Iraq, Del Olmo wrote in December 2004. In the same document he detailed a series of radical Isalmic cells that that had formed in Spain and advocated carrying out Jihad - or holy war - on European soil. More than 80 people have so far been questioned by investigators, 200 DNA tests have been carried out, and more than 50,000 phone-conversations tapped in the course of an investigation that has so far run to thousands of pages. Seven key bombing suspects are dead. They blew themselves up three weeks after the Madrid bombings, as police closed in on their hideout in a southern Madrid suburb. A police special operations officer was killed and 18 police officers were injured in the blast. Victims are angry that Del Olmo has so far only called some 10 of those caught up in the bombings to testify.The Spanish government has granted more than 900 residency cards to immigrants who were victims or to their family members, the interior ministery said. The government has paid more than 70 million dollars in compensation to victims and their relatives. |
| Posted by:Steve |