Italian court jails man linked to Madrid attack

AN Egyptian wanted in connection with the 2004 Madrid train bombings was convicted yesterday on international terrorism charges in Italy and sentenced to 10 years in prison.

The court in Milan convicted Rabei Osman Sayed Ahmed, aged 35, and Yahi Ragheh — a 23-year-old prosecutors said was preparing to become a suicide bomber — of subversive association aimed at international terrorism, a charge introduced after the September 11 attacks in the US.

The younger man was given a five-year term.

Prosecutor Maurizio Romanelli had demanded a 14-year sentence for Ahmed, arguing that he had ties to a terror cell whose reach extended throughout Europe and even to Iraq. He sought a seven-year sentence for Ragheh, Ahmed’s alleged disciple.

Spanish authorities had tipped Italian investigators to Ahmed’s presence in Italy after the Madrid attacks, Romanelli said. Authorities subsequently bugged the apartment where Ahmed was living with Ragheh, and the two men were arrested in Milan in June 2004.

Prosecutors said they overheard Ahmed claiming involvement in the Madrid attacks, telling his co-defendant: “I’m the thread to Madrid, it’s my work.”

Ahmed denied that he belonged to an Egyptian radical Islamic group. Ragheh said he came to Italy to look for work and was not involved in terror activities.

Defence lawyers said both planned to appeal.

Ahmed is to go on trial in Spain early next year along with 28 other suspects in the Madrid bombings.

He is one of the chief suspects in the Madrid bombing, accused of helping plan the March 11, 2004, attacks, which killed 191 people.

Spanish authorities have never identified him as one of the masterminds but say he played a role and have charged him with conspiracy to commit murder.

The alleged ringleader of the Madrid attack, Sarhane Ben Abdelmajid Fakhet, and four other suspects died in an April 2004 explosion in an apartment outside Madrid, apparently committing suicide to avoid capture. A Spanish investigator testified in June that Ahmed had been seen at Fakhet’s apartment in Madrid.

Defence solicitor Luca D’Auria acknowledged that his client knew the members of the cell that carried out the attacks, but knew nothing of their plans.