Lawyers demand acquittal for Madrid bombing suspects

Defence lawyers for an Egyptian accused of masterminding the 2004 Madrid train bombings and a Moroccan who allegedly planted the explosives demanded their acquittals on the last day of trial for 28 people charged in the terror attacks.

The lawyers were the last to make closing arguments in the four-month trial, Europe’s biggest terrorism court case. Most of the defendants later proclaimed their innocence in final statements, and some condemned terrorism.

Prosecutors say a homegrown cell of Islamic terrorists staged the attacks in retaliation for the presence of Spanish troops in Iraq. Ten bombs ripped through four packed commuter trains on March 11, 2004, killing 191 people and injuring more than 1,800.

A defense lawyer said prosecutors were trying to convict Rabei Osman, one of three people charged with orchestrating the attacks, “based on nothing, and with an astounding frivolousness”.

Osman, an Egyptian, was arrested in Italy in June 2004. The main evidence against him was wiretapped conversations in which Osman allegedly tells an associate in Italy the attacks were his idea. He has repeatedly denied it was his voice in the calls.

“I ask you for a fair sentence, and in the case of Rabei Osman, a judgment of acquittal,” said defense lawyer Endika Zulueta, adding that prosecutors distorted facts to present his client as an extremist.

Prosecutors are demanding prison terms of nearly 39,000 years each for eight primary suspects. Under Spanish law, however, the maximum time they could serve is 40 years. Spain has no death penalty or life imprisonment.

Osman listened to his lawyer’s comment through headphones in a bullet-proof glass chamber where most of the defendants have watched the proceedings. He was later allowed out of the enclosure to make a statement.

“I’m not going to add anything else, I’m happy with what my lawyer has said. I only would like to ask the court for justice,” Osman said.

Jamal Zougam, a Moroccan charged with planting some of the bombs, said he “had already served three years in prison due to witnesses’ lies”.

“I don’t know who did it, if it was the work of Islamists, probably it was, but I didn’t do it,” Zougam told the court, reading from a handful of hand-written notes.

His lawyer, Jose Luis Abascal, said Zougam had nothing to do with the attacks and dismissed witness accounts that he was on the train.

“There is no trace of Jamal Zougam in any of the places (linked to the bombings), neither genetically nor visually,” Abascal said.

He said Zougam, who ran a shop that sold most of the mobile phone cards used to set off the bombs, was made the scapegoat in the wake of the bombings because he was one of the first suspects to be identified publicly.

Among the defendants are nine Spaniards charged with providing stolen explosives for attacks.

Eighteen of the suspects have watched the proceedings from the bullet-proof chamber, while the other 10, who have remained free on bail, have sat in the main section of the courtroom.

“I don’t want an exemplary sentence just a fair one,” said Pilar Manjon, who lost her 20-year-old son in the bombings and heads an association of the victims.

A special pavilion was constructed in a park on Madrid’s outskirts for the trial, which included testimony from some 300 witnesses and 71 experts. Police patrolled the premises and a tank was parked outside the entrance.

Verdicts from the three-judge panel are expected in October.

Spain’s conservative Popular Party, which initially blamed the Basque separatist group Eta for the attacks, was voted out of power in elections three days after bombings.

Police arrested most of the suspects within days of the attacks. Seven suspected ringleaders, however, blew themselves up as police closed in on their hideout in a Madrid suburb three weeks after the bombings. Three others are believed to have fled the country.