Spain Train Bombings Trial Begins
The trial of 29 suspects in the 2004 Madrid terror attacks began Thursday under tight security, with survivors and mourners getting their first close-up look at the defendants accused of a massacre that killed 191 people and wounded more than 1,800.
The first defendant to take the stand, Egyptian Rabei Osman, an alleged ringleader of the attack, refused to answer any questions and said he did not recognize the charges against him.
"Your honor, with all due respect, I do not acknowledge any accusations or charges," Osman said calmly.
When Osman tried to explain his reasons for not testifying, a judge cut him off and ordered the prosecutor to pose the questions she had planned. He was due to be questioned by his lawyer later Thursday, after initially saying he would not answer even his own counsel's queries.
Osman, who was arrested in Italy, allegedly bragged in intercepted phone calls that the Madrid train bombings were his idea.
The bombing of trains in Madrid were the worst-ever attack linked to Islamic militants in Europe, and the trial has ignited painful memories of what Spaniards call the nation's most traumatic event since the 1930s civil war. Images of body bags and twisted train cars were played and replayed on Spanish television on Thursday, a grim reminder of the devastation left by 10 backpack bombs that exploded on four commuter trains during morning rush hour.
As Osman sat in silence, prosecutor Olga Sanchez asked him a long list of questions, including when and why he came to Spain and if he took part in global jihad and trained others.
Eighteen of the suspects watched the proceedings from a bulletproof chamber, packed together on wooden benches, while the other 11, who are out on bail, sat in the main section of the courtroom.
Many of the suspects in the bulletproof chamber averted their glance from victims' relatives sitting in the small, heavily guarded courtroom, and some turned their backs to them.
Seven defendants face possible prison terms of 30 years for each of the killings and 18 years apiece for 1,820 attempted murders. But under Spanish law, the maximum time anyone can serve for a terrorist conviction is 40 years.
Three of those seven are considered to have masterminded the attack, including Osman, and three to have placed bombs on trains. Other lower-profile defendants face charges ranging from belonging to a terrorist organization to supplying explosives stolen from a mine in northern Spain for use in the attacks. This is the case of the nine Spaniards, one of them a woman, who are on trial in the case.
Security was tight, with police on horseback patrolling outside the court on the city outskirts, and police sniffer-dogs searching for explosives.
Of 12 suspected ringleaders, only three are in court. Seven others blew themselves up to avoid arrest three weeks after the attack and the rest are fugitives.
Testimony is expected to last more than five months, and a verdict was expected in late October.
The trial follows an investigation which concluded that the attack was carried out by a homegrown cell of Muslim extremists angry over the then-conservative government's support for the Iraq war and its troop presence in Afghanistan. The cell was inspired by al Qaeda, but had no direct links to it, nor did it receive financing from Osama bin Laden's terrorist organization, Spanish investigators say.
The government at the time initially blamed Basque separatists, and continued to do so even as evidence emerged of Islamic radical involvement. This led to charges of a cover up, and in elections three days after the attack Socialists were voted into power. They quickly brought Spain's troops home from Iraq.
The Madrid attacks were the deadliest in western Europe since the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988 that killed 270 people.