Spain detains six people on terror charges

A Spanish judge ordered six people to be held in jail on provisional charges of belonging to a terrorist group, while freeing six others, the National Court in Madrid said today.

The 12 were among 16 people – 14 Moroccans and two Algerians – arrested on Monday on suspicion of recruiting volunteers for the insurgency in Iraq and other countries. Four were released on Tuesday but are still considered suspects.

Besides the six jailed by Judge Baltasar Garzon, four were released on bail of 3,000 euro (£2,000) while two were ordered to appear before a court each week.

Abdelaziz Houari Mellas and Mostafa Aztout, two of the six jailed, were alleged to be the leaders of the recruiting cell.

The court said computer material, jihad propaganda and several mobile phones seized during the pre-dawn raids on Monday were being investigated. No arms or explosives were discovered.

Police said the operation was connected to one in January 2006 in which 22 people were arrested in raids against jihad-recruitment cells in Spain.

In the court statement, the judge said Houari Mellas and Aztout took over operations from Moroccan Omar Nakhcha, the alleged leader of the cells broken up last year. One of those recruited by Nachka’s group was Algerian Belgacem Bellil, identified as the suicide attacker involved in the bombing that killed 19 Italians and nine Iraqis at an Italian military base in Iraq in 2003.

The judge said Houari Mellas and Aztout maintained contacts with other suspects in Morocco and Turkey. The group also helped collect funds for the jihad activities, the statement added.

Since the September 11, 2001, attacks in New York and Washington, Spanish police have arrested hundreds of Islamic terror suspects, many in connection with the 2004 train bombings in Madrid, which killed 191 people.

In recent years, police have focused on cells suspected of recruiting mujahedeen fighters and suicide bombers or for collecting money to finance al Qaida and linked groups abroad.

Twenty-nine suspects, most of them Moroccan, are on trial in the Spanish capital for their alleged roles in the train attacks. The attacks were claimed by Islamic radicals to avenge the presence of Spanish troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.