US lawyer freed as new Madrid evidence emerges

An American lawyer arrested over the Madrid bombings has been set free after evidence pointed to another suspect in the terror attacks.

Brandon Mayfield, 37, was released in Oregon, soon after Spanish officials said fingerprints found on a bag near the bombing site were that of an Algerian.

US authorities had previously said the prints were Mayfield’s. The bag contained detonators similar to those used in the March 11 blasts which killed 191 people and injured 2,000 others.

“I want to thank my family and friends who were supporting me through what I will call a harrowing ordeal,” Mayfield, a convert to Islam, said as he walked out of the federal courthouse in Portland, grasping his wife’s hand and holding a Koran and a Muslim prayer rug.

In Arabic, and then in English, Mayfield recited the Muslim prayer: “God is great. There is no God but God.”

His three children, aged 10, 12 and 15, rushed up behind him, and his wife’s eyes filled with tears.

The family has insisted Mayfield is innocent, saying he has not been out of the country for at least a decade.

His mother, Avnell Mayfield, said she hugged her son when he arrived at his Portland home. “I’m just elated,” she said in a telephone interview. “He’s much taller than I remember him being.”

Mayfield was released before his children could finish crocheting a pair of yellow and tan socks for him. “Dad, you got out sooner then we thought,” his 10-year-old said, according to Avnell Mayfield.

Samer Horani, a board member of the Islamic Centre of Portland, called Mayfield’s arrest a stark example of the FBI’s profiling of Muslims. “Ethnicity doesn’t matter. If you are Muslim you are suspect,” he said.

Through relatives, Mayfield said he could not comment because of a gagging order.

Mayfield, a former US Army lieutenant who ran a small, struggling Portland law firm, was arrested on May 6 as a material witness and was never charged. It is not clear whether the investigation against him has been dropped.

FBI spokeswoman Beth Anne Steele said she could not comment because “it is a pending grand jury matter”. But she would not say whether the grand jury was considering an indictment against Mayfield. Justice department officials in Washington declined to comment.

Senior law enforcement officials in Washington had said the FBI had Mayfield’s home under surveillance for weeks. When it became clear that news about him might leak, the justice department placed him in custody.

In Madrid last night, authorities said the fingerprints found on the plastic bag belonged to an Algerian, Ouhnane Daoud. The bag was found in a van hours after the morning rush-hour blasts.

The van had been left near the train station from which three of the four bombed trains had departed.

The bombings were blamed on Islamic militants with possible links to al-Qaida.

Spanish police said the fingerprint match meant that Daoud “participated” in the bombing, but gave no further details and did not say if he was being sought for questioning or arrest. Police released a photograph of Daoud.

The Europa Press news agency reported Daoud had a residency permit to live in Spain and had a police record.