The families of victims killed in the 2004 Madrid train bombings were outraged yesterday at the Spanish national court’s acquittals of seven defendants and the perceived leniency in sentences handed down to those convicted of the worst terrorist attacks carried out by Islamic militants on European soil.
On March 11, 2004 ten backpacks loaded with nails and dynamite exploded on four commuter trains during morning peak hour in Madrid. The blasts ripped apart several carriages, killing 191 people and wounding 1,841 more.
Spanish authorities brought a total of 28 suspects to trial – 19 Arabs, mostly from Morocco, and 9 Spaniards. Seven other men believed to have been ringleaders blew themselves up in a Madrid apartment three weeks after the attacks as police closed in to arrest them.
Although no direct links were established to al Qaeda, the terrorist cell that carried out the bombings were said to have been part of a local al Qaeda-inspired extremist group with links to known militants in Libya, Algeria and Morocco. The group appears to have been funded by local drug dealing rackets in Madrid.
Their motivation for the bombings was to protest the deployment of Spanish troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Yesterday, three key suspects – Jamal Zougam and Othman Gnaoui of Morocco and Emilio Suarez Trashorras of Spain – were convicted of murder and attempted murder and were sentenced to 34,000 to 40,000 years each in prison.
However, they will only serve a maximum of 40 years each because under Spanish law there is no life imprisonment. There is also no death penalty.
Mr Zougam placed at least one bomb on one of the trains; Mr Gnaoui directly assisted one of the top ringleaders; and Mr Trashorras, a former miner, supplied the dynamite used in all of the bombs.
Four more key suspects – Youssef Belhadj, Hassan el Haski, Abdulmajid Bouchar and Rafa Zouhier – were found not guilty of murder, but were convicted of other offences including belonging to a terrorist organization. They were given sentences ranging from 10 to 18 years in prison.
Most upsetting for victims’ families and survivors of the bombings was the acquittal of Rabei Osman, an Egyptian who is said to have boasted that he had a lead role in the attacks. However, translations of his taped conversations in Arabic included only indirect references that did not amount to hard evidence or a confession. Mr Osman is already serving time in an Italian prison for his role in the Madrid bombings.
Of the remaining twenty defendants, fourteen were convicted of lesser crimes and six were acquitted.
Victims’ association president Pilar Manjon, a woman who lost her 20 year-old son in the attacks, said, “We are going to appeal against this mistake. I don’t like to see killers walking free.”
Isabel Presa, whose youngest son was killed in the blasts, said, “It has destroyed my life, it has condemned me and my husband to a life sentence, and these people get off scot-free.”
