Calls for Madrid bombers to face 38,000 years

Spanish prosecutors will request jail terms of more than 38,000 years for the lead suspects in the 2004 Madrid train bombings when their trial gets under way next year.

The sentence request will be included in a final report that prosecutor Olga Sanchez will send to the National Court later this week, said a spokeswoman for the prosecution office in Madrid.

Sanchez is expected to ask for the longest prison term for seven prime suspects.

Among them is Jamal Zougam, a Moroccan merchant who allegedly supplied cell phones used as detonators in the 10 backpack bombs that ripped through four crowded commuter trains on the morning of March 11, 2004.

Some 191 people died in the blasts, and hundreds were injured.

Zougam has said he had nothing to do with the plot but the court indictment says witnesses have identified him as having been on the trains that were bombed.