Face-pulling terror suspect expelled from Madrid court

A defendant in the Madrid terror trial was expelled from court today after the presiding judge accused him of making faces.

The expelled man is Rafa Zuhier, a 27-year-old Moroccan charged with being a middleman between the alleged Islamic extremist cell that carried out the March 11, 2004 massacre and Spaniards who sold the cell stolen dynamite in exchange for drugs and cash.

The attacks killed 191 people and wounded more than 1,800. Zuhier is among 18 defendants who are watching the trial from inside a bullet-proof chamber in the courtroom. The other 11 of 29 on trial are in open court.

Mr Zuhier was seen repeatedly shaking his head and making faces while a long-time associate, Rachid Aglif, testified that it was Mr Zuhier who had implicated him in the case and were it not for Mr Zuhier’s testimony to investigators, he would be a free man.