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| Europe |
| Spain Charges 3 in Deadly Train Bombings |
| 2004-03-19 |
| A judge charged three Moroccans with at least 190 counts of murder in last week’s Spanish train bombings and ordered them and two Indians jailed Friday pending an investigation that could last two years, a court official said. The judge’s decision, which stops short of a formal indictment, is the first indication the government has strong evidence linking the Moroccans to the worst terror attack in Spain’s history. The March 11 attacks killed 202 people. During an all-night, closed-courtroom session, the five denied any connections to the bombings. Suspicion for the bombings has centered on Moroccan extremists said to be linked to Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida terror network. In an unauthenticated videotape, a man claiming to speak for al-Qaida said the group carried out the attack in reprisal for Spain’s backing of the U.S.-led war in Iraq. The five suspects denied having links to al-Qaida, the official said. Key suspect Jamal Zougam, a Moroccan, stared down and The Moroccans were charged with 190 killings, 1,400 attempted killings, and membership in a terrorist group, the official said after the hearing before National Court Judge Juan del Olmo. The killings charges reflect the number of bodies identified so far. The attempted killings charges are based on the number of people injured by the morning rush-hour blasts. The Moroccan trio had originally been accused only of falsification charges when they were arrested March 13, two days after the bombings. The El Pais newspaper reported Friday that police searching the telephone services shop where Zougam and Bekkali worked found a piece of a cell phone used in a backpack bomb left on a train. The bomb did not explode and the cell phone, which apparently was set to connect to a detonator, was recovered and analyzed, the newspaper reported, citing police sources. The two Indians, identified by Spanish authorities as Vinay Kohly and Suresh Kumar, were charged with collaborating with a terrorist group and falsifying a sales document while committing fraud, the court official said without elaborating. They also were detained March 13. The judge’s decision to charge the five means they can be held for two years while investigators gather evidence. The judge can then extend the detention for another two years. All five men were barred from contact with lawyers and family. |
| Posted by:Fred |