Madrid suspect charged with helping plan 9/11

A MOROCCAN fugitive sought in connection with last month’s Madrid train bombings was indicted yesterday on charges of helping plan the September 11 attacks in New York.

Amer Azizi helped organise a meeting in northeast Spain in July 2001 that key plotters in the World Trade Centre attacks, including suspect suicide pilot Mohamed Atta, used to finalise details, Judge Baltasar Garzon said.

Azizi was initially included in an indictment Garzon handed down in September against Osama bin Laden and 34 other terror suspects. Azizi was charged then with belonging to a terrorist organisation.

The new indictment charges Azizi with actually helping plan the September 11 attacks. Judge Garzon accused Azizi of multiple counts of murder on September 11. The indictment was based on information provided by authorities in Britain, Turkey and the US, Judge Garzon said.

Azizi provided lodging for people who attended the July 2001 meeting in the Tarragona region of Spain and acted as a courier, passing messages between plotters, Judge Garzon said.

He described Azizi as the right-hand man of Imad Yarkas, jailed in November 2001 on charges of leading a Spain-based al-Qaida cell that allegedly provided financing and logistics for planners of the September 11 attacks. Azizi fled Spain in November 2001.