Prosecutor seeks 74,000-year sentences for terror suspects

A prosecutor is to seek 74,000-year prison sentences for each of three suspected al-Qaida members charged with using Spain as a staging ground for the September 11 attacks in the US.

A trial in Madrid is expected to start some time in mid-March but no date has been set, the Spanish National Court said.

Prosecutor Pedro Rubira said that for each of the three suspects he is seeking 25 years in jail for each of the people killed in the suicide airliner attacks against the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon.

Those three men are the alleged leader of a Spain-based al-Qaida cell, Imad Yarkas, and two alleged accomplices, Driss Chebli and Ghasoub al-Abrash Ghalyoun. Chebli is Moroccan while the other two are of Syrian origin.

Rubira said the official death toll on 9/11 was 2,973, so each man faces a possible jail term of more than 74,000 years.

The three are among 21 people who are to stand trial in Spain. The other 18, however, are charged with belonging to a terrorist organisation – not with actually helping plan the attacks.