Morocco detains suspect in 2004 Madrid bombings

[Marcus Marulus]

Morocco detains suspect in 2004 Madrid bombings

REUTERS

Reuters North American News Service

Feb 08, 2008

RABAT, Feb 8 (Reuters) - Moroccan authorities are detaining a Moroccan suspect on charges of involvement in the 2004 Madrid train bombings which killed 191 people, court officials and lawyers said on Friday.

Abdelilah Ahriz, 29, will remain in custody in Sale prison outside Rabat pending a trial, they added.

"Ahriz is charged with belonging to a terrorist group and complicity in destroying of means of public transport with explosives," a court official said, in reference to Madrid bombings.

Last year, Ahriz was sentenced to three years in prison for similar charges but an appeals court turned down his sentence and freed him last May.
He was re-arrested last month in Rabat after Spanish authorities pressed his case with new evidence.

Spanish Judge Juan Del Olmo recently travelled to Morocco to question Ahriz and take DNA samples, Moroccan government officials said.

Ahriz is allegedly linked to the 2004 attacks by DNA found on a comb in the flat in a Madrid suburb where seven suspects blew themselves up when police closed in on them, they added. His fingerprints were also found in a house near Madrid where the explosives were assembled, according to these officials. In October a Spanish court found 21 people guilty of involvement in the bombings on March 11, 2004, but cleared three men of masterminding the attack. Victims were shocked by the sentences, which in many cases were much lower than the state attorney had requested and left the public without any clearer idea of who devised the attack that ripped apart four commuter trains.

(Reporting by Lamine Ghanmi; Editing by Stephen Weeks)

Source: Reuters North American News Service

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