Key Madrid bombing suspect appears at trial in Italy

An alleged ringleader of the March 2004 Madrid bombings appeared in a Milan court today at the scheduled start of his trial on charges of international terrorism and plotting another attack in an undisclosed location.

Handcuffed and dressed in white robes and a skullcap, Rabei Osman Sayed Ahmed was escorted by police into the courtroom and placed in a cage off to the side of the room. The start of the hearing, though, was delayed because Ahmed’s lawyer hadn’t shown up.

Italian police acting on a tip from their Spanish counterparts arrested Ahmed in Milan three months after the Madrid attacks. He is accused of recruiting extremists as the head of a terrorist cell.

Spanish and Italian authorities consider the 34-year-old Egyptian a mastermind of the Madrid train bombings that killed 191 people and injured more than 1,500.

Ahmed has maintained his innocence and denied belonging to a terrorist group.

He has denied he is the person speaking in intercepted conversations that Italian police say prove his role in the attacks and show that Ahmed was indoctrinating militants for suicide bomb missions in Iraq and elsewhere.

Italian police said in a report summarising the investigation that Ahmed was also trying “to construct cells at a European level in order to carry out terrorist actions on the model of Madrid.”

The start of the trial was thrown into some uncertainty today because of the absence of Ahmed’s lawyer, identified in court documents as Antonio Rossi of Piacenza. Contacted yesterday by The Associated Press, Rossi said he had no knowledge of the case.

Also standing trial is 22-year-old Egyptian Yahia Ragheh, picked up in the same operation as Ahmed and described by authorities as a would-be suicide bomber. He too appeared in court today and joined Ahmed in the cage.

Ragheh’s attorney, Roberta Ligotti, told reporters as she arrived at the tribunal that the case had been overblown because of the alleged link to the Madrid bombings.

“There’s a collective fear at the moment,” she said. “There’s a great interest in seeing terrorist crimes everywhere.”

She said there was insufficient proof that Ragheh belonged to any terrorist cell and said prosecutors had only cited one phone call traced to her client in their evidence.

In an interview yesterday, Ligotti said prosecutors had pressed charges “without identifying specific people with whom Ragheh was associated and without mention of specific attacks.”

Both Ahmed and Ragheh are accused of subversive association aimed at international terrorism, a charge introduced after the September 11 attacks in the US as Italy stepped up its efforts against terrorist suspects.

Arrested in a Europe-wide operation that also saw 15 suspected Islamic militants detained in Belgium and the Netherlands, Ahmed has been linked to terrorist cells across Europe.

Investigators traced his movements in the years before the Madrid attacks in countries including Spain, France, Germany and Italy, and have detailed his frequent contact with Islamic extremists.

Ahmed was extradited to Spain for four months where he was questioned on the Madrid attacks by Spanish officials, and returned to Italy last April.

Spanish judge Juan del Olmo has filed provisional charges against him of mass murder and terrorism, though Ahmed has not been indicted in Spain.

Ragheh’s lawyer Ligotti said Ahmed faces a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison if convicted; while the maximum sentence for Ragheh, accused of participating in the terror cell, is eight years if he is convicted.