Madrid bomb suspects appear in court

Five Madrid bombing suspects arrested in the latest police sweeps appeared in court today as Spanish investigators pursued conspirators in the country’s worst terrorist attack.

Police searching a house where terrorists are believed to have assembled the bombs used in the March 11 attack have found the fingerprints of at least 10 people, including Moroccan prime suspect Jamal Zougam, the newspaper El País reported.

Over the weekend, police also found the fingerprints of Abderrahim Zbakh, another Moroccan leading suspect in the train bombings, which killed 190 people and wounded more than 1,800, radio reported.

Investigators, operating under a secrecy order, would not confirm the reports, which also said detonators and traces of dynamite were found in the house near Morata de Tajuna, 20 miles south-east of Madrid.

The bombers planted explosives-laden backpacks in four rush-hour commuter trains and apparently triggered them by mobile phone.

Both Zbakh and Zougam were arrested in the first week after the bombings and have been charged with mass murder. Eighteen people are in custody in connection with the attacks, and nine of the 12 people already charged are Moroccan.

A Morocco-based terrorist cell with links to Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida network is a focus of suspicion. Court documents have linked Zougam to members of an al-Qaida cell in Spain.

The five suspects appearing at Madrid’s National Court on Monday were arrested last week. No details about them have been released, except that four are Moroccan and one is Syrian.

A sixth unidentified suspect, whose arrest was announced Friday, has yet to appear before the court.