Judge delivers Madrid verdicts
Four of the eight primary defendants were found guilty
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Wednesday, 31, Oct 2007 07:53
Three terrorists have received maximum sentences in the trial of the 2004 Madrid bombings.
In total 21 of the 28 people accused of involvement in the planning or execution of the bombings, which occurred on March 11th 2004 and left 191 people dead, were found guilty.
Heavy security surrounded the trial amid intense public interest and this was intensified for today's much-anticipated verdicts.
Spaniard Emilio Suarez Trashorras, who supplied the explosives from a mine, Moroccan bomber Jamal Zougam and fellow countryman Othman el-Ghanoui were each given over 40,000 years in jail.
But they will only serve 40 as this is the maximum sentence permitted under Spanish law.
Zougam, who like all the other defendants had denied the charges laid against him, had claimed he was asleep at the time of the attack.
"Today justice was done and we must now look to the future," Spanish prime minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said.
Egyptian Rabei Osman, who was alleged to have boasted about his role as one of the masterminds responsible for planning the attacks, was one of seven who were acquitted of all charges.
Another man police believed had been behind the attacks died in an explosion at a flat in Madrid weeks after the bombings.
The trial, which began in March, has proved so important because of the political impact caused by the bombs.
An election upset occurred a week after the explosions when the Spanish people unexpectedly voted into power the left-wing socialist opposition, resulting in the withdrawal of Spanish troops from Iraq.