The man accused of masterminding Europe's worst Islamist terror attack took the stand yesterday as the trial opened in Madrid of 29 men accused over multiple train bombings in the Spanish capital on 11 March 2004. Rabei Osman Sayed Ahmed, known as "Mohamed the Egyptian" sat impassively facing three Spanish magistrates while an unprecedented charge list was read out.
| If convicted, he faces eighteen years jail for membership of a terrorist group, 30 years for each of the 191 people killed when multiple explosions ripped through four Madrid commuter trains; 18 years for each attempted murder of the 1,824 wounded, and a further eight years each for the unborn children of two pregnant women killed. |
The figures brought home the massive scale of a massacrethat has left deep emotional and political scars in Spain. Speaking through his lawyer, Mr Osman denied all involvement: "I never had any relation to the events that occurred in Madrid. I condemn these attacks unconditionally," he said.
| "Lies! All lies!" |
Pilar Manjon, who lost her son Daniel and has become a spokeswoman for other victims and their families, stood up and faced the accused as they filed into their armoured glass cage. "I looked them in the eye as I wanted them to know I was going to be their worst nightmare. They avoided my gaze," she said.
Prosecutors argue the plot was the work of a home-grown Islamist cell inspired by al-Qa'ida, who sought to punish Spain for participating in the war in Iraq. But the three years of investigations summarised in hundreds of cardboard boxfiles lined up yesterday behind the judges will afford a painful reminder of past mistakes - and of just how easily a clutch of religious fanatics was able to exploit enormous security gaps in a country obsessed with combating terrorism.