Bomb plot trial to begin in Spain
From Al GoodmanMadrid Bureau Chief
MADRID, Spain (CNN) -- Thirty suspected Islamic terrorists go on trial Monday in the anti-terrorism courthouse they are charged with plotting to destroy with a truck bomb, according to a prosecution document viewed by CNN.
MADRID, Spain (CNN) -- Thirty suspected Islamic terrorists go on trial Monday in the anti-terrorism courthouse they are charged with plotting to destroy with a truck bomb, according to a prosecution document viewed by CNN.
The alleged terrorists planned to kill hundreds of judges, prosecutors, support staff and police officers who work daily at the National Court, which tries cases of terrorism, the document said. They also planned to destroy files against other Islamic terrorist suspects, including those charged in the Madrid train bombings, it added.
Prosecutors identified the alleged ringleader of the plot as Abderrahmane Tahiri, 34, of Morocco.
Tahiri in the summer of 2004 -- months after the Madrid train bombings that killed 191 people and wounded 1,800 others -- sought to obtain 500 kg (1,100 lbs) of explosives for the courthouse attack, the document said.
"The level of preparation for the attack had reached the point where" Tahiri and six other defendants "had expressed willingness to blow themselves up in carrying out the attack against the National Court," the document said.
Others on trial allegedly played supporting roles.
A court source told CNN that all of the defendants have insisted on their innocence at arraignments and other pre-trial hearings.
Police arrested most of the suspects in October 2004. Many of them had been convicted of other crimes and were serving time in prison, the document said.
The trial is due to start at 10 a.m. (0900 GMT) in a secure basement courtroom equipped with bullet-proof glass separating the defendants from the three judges who will hear the case, and more bullet-proof glass separating the public from the court.
The defendants include 19 Algerians, 5 Moroccans and others from Mauritania, Afghanistan, Palestine, Lebanon and Spain.
Tahiri could get 66 years in prison if convicted on four counts: conspiracy to commit a deadly terrorist attack, leader of a terrorist group, document forgery, and counterfeiting for terrorist aims, the document said.
Some others could get just 10 years if convicted on one count of belonging to a terrorist group.
Prosecutors base their case on testimony and documentation provided by a Moroccan man operating as a police informant and on wiretaps and intercepted correspondence between some of the suspects, according to the document and the court source.
There are streets on three sides of the courthouse. The main street runs next to the building. An attack "would have been easy" at the time, the court source said.
But the courthouse has since increased security, installing thick metal barriers to block traffic on the side and back of the building.
Tahiri started the alleged terrorist group while serving a sentence in the Topas prison in northwest Salamanca province. He recruited and indoctrinated some fellow inmates, and the group later spread to another prison as transfers occurred, and to eastern and southern Spain, outside of prisons, the document said.
Two of the defendants, Dibali Abdellah, 32, of Algeria, and Baanou Abdullah, 22, of Lebanon, also corresponded with three men -- Mohamed Amine Salameh, Mohamed Abouhahima and Nidaly Ayyad -- who were serving sentences in the United States for their links to the 1993 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York, the document said.
Abdellah faces 12 years if convicted of leadership in a terrorist group and Abdullah could get 10 years if convicted of membership in a terrorist group, the document said.
Another defendant, Hocine Kedache, 51, helped hide a key fugitive of the Madrid train bombings who later blew himself up with other prime suspects in a suburb of Madrid. Kedache could get 10 years if convicted of membership in a terrorist group, the document said.
The trial is expected to last until Christmas and the initial testimony by 30 defendants could take weeks, the court source said.
posted by Prince and Gina Parker @ 9:04 AM,
