Bin Laden message led to Madrid train bombings

[Ferran]

Bin Laden message led to Madrid train bombings

6 November 2006

MADRID — A message from Osama Bin-Laden was the 'detonator' which led to the Madrid bombings by Islamic terrorists.

The Spanish daily El Mundo reported on Monday Bin-Laden's message, broadcast on Al-Jazeera television five months before the attacks in March 2004, led to the terrorist atrocity which claimed 191 lives.

Bin-Laden called for the return of Al-Andalus, the Muslim name for the kingdom ruled by the Moors in Spain during the Middle Ages.

The newspaper said Javier Zaragoza, national court prosecutor, claimed this sparked the terrorist group to launch the attacks.

In another newspaper, El Pais, it was reported Zaragoza would ask for a total of 40,000 years in jail for each of the seven principle suspects if convicted.

They are Jamal Zougam, Basel Ghalyoun, Abdelmajid Bouchar, Rabei Osman, Youssef Belhadj, Hassan el Haski and José Emilio Suárez Trashorras.

Zaragoza is to ask for 30 years in jail for each of the 191 people murdered plus 18 years for each of the attempted murders of the 1,820 injured.

Suárez Trashorras is to face a new charge of associating with an illicit group of alleged terrorists.

The other 22 accused, who are due to stand trial next February, face between 30 and four years behind bars if found guilty.

In Spain, though prosecutors ask for thousands of years in jail for the convicted, the maximum they can serve is 30.

[Copyright EFE with Expatica]



Source: http://www.expatica.com/actual/artic...story_id=34161