http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2003574764_spain16.html
Suspects on trial in Europe's worst Islamist terror attack MADRID, Spain - Twenty-nine defendants sat on one side of the heavily guarded courtroom Thursday, most of them shielded by bulletproof glass. A few yards away sat some 50 victims: angry, somber survivors and families of the nearly 200 dead. And so began the trial in Europe's largest act of Islamist terrorism, a controversial and wrenching effort to punish the guilty and answer questions that continue to roil society in Spain and throughout the continent. On March 11, 2004, bombs planted by suspected Islamic militants ripped through four commuter trains during Madrid's morning rush hour, killing 191 people and wounding more than 1,800 others. It was the first al-Qaida-linked attack on European soil, revealing the existence of new militant networks. The carnage traumatized a thriving nation and upended Spanish politics. Many here hope the trial now will somehow help heal the scars. Thursday's proceedings, televised live to a transfixed national audience, opened with questioning of a key defendant often portrayed as a mastermind behind the attacks. Rabei Osman Sayed Ahmed, an Egyptian, was arrested in Milan three months after the bombings and purportedly boasted of his role in the conspiracy. Ahmed refused to answer questions from prosecutors. Later, however, he agreed to respond to his attorney and denied responsibility for the bombings. "Your honor, I never had any relation to the events which occurred in Madrid," he testified. "Obviously I condemn these attacks unconditionally and completely," he testified in Arabic. "I have never had any ties to al- Qaida nor to any Islamic organization . ... Thank God, I am a Muslim, but I practice my religion in a normal way, not an extremist way." Also known as "Mohammed the Egyptian," Ahmed is one of three men whom prosecutors accuse of planning and organizing the attacks. Seven of the principal suspects in the case killed themselves three weeks after the bombings when they blew up their suburban Madrid apartment building as police closed in. Most of the people standing trial are Arab or North African Muslims; nine are non-Muslim Spaniards. Charges vary from mass murder to terrorist association and supplying the explosives used to blow up the trains. Law-enforcement authorities have long considered Ahmed key, both in the Madrid bombings and in the building of jihadist networks used to recruit and send fighters from Europe to Iraq. Italian law-enforcement authorities tracked Ahmed for months before arresting him and intercepted a phone call in which he allegedly praises the Madrid suspects who died "martyrs" and wishes he could join them. "The entire Madrid operation was mine," he tells a colleague. Prosecutors hold that conversation up as a confession. In court Thursday, Ahmed's attorney, Endika Zulueta, asked that the recordings of the eavesdropped statements be provided to an interpreter working for the defense so that the translations could be verified. Judge Javier Gomez Bermudez agreed to Zulueta's request. Survivors and victims' relatives said they felt both relief that the trial had finally begun as well as doubts whether their anguish could be assuaged or their quest for justice sated. The trial is expected to last four to six months, with the three-judge panel expected to deliver its verdicts in the fall. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: [email protected] Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. 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