Suicide in Leganes, Luisa Barrenechea

KVB Tharoor — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 16:15:03 +0100

The trial resumed after the Easter recess with three days of dense and interesting testimony. Monday witnessed the surprising testimony of "VÃctor", a member of the Guardia Civil responsible for the informer Rafa Zouhier (now amongst the accused). He declared that in January 2003, more than a year before the attacks, Zouhier gave information to the Guadia Civil's intelligence division (the Unidad Central Operativa) on the activities of the defendants Emilio SuÃ¡rez Trashorras and Antonio Toro relating to the trafficking of explosives.

Before the incredulity and astonishment of the judge, VÃctor was unable to explain why he had not made this known during earlier phases of the investigation into the 11-M bombings. With the admission, "it is very strange that I forgot about it", VÃctor finished his testimony. Other testimonies have been helpful in clarifying what happened in the flat in LeganÃ©s on 3 April, 2004, where three weeks after the Madrid bombing, suspected terrorists blew themselves up, killing a member of the police's special forces along with themselves.

Luisa Barrenechea is a lawyer and researcher of European counter-terrorism at FRIDE in Madrid.According to the summary of the judge Juan del Olmo, the 11-M attacks were the work of the seven men killed in the LeganÃ©s flat. It is essential for the judical process to determine what occurred before and after the explosion, what evidence was discovered by the forensic police there, and who the terrorists in the flat were.

This collective suicide, without precedent in Europe, is chained to the 11-M attacks. We cannot clarify the material truth of the attacks without confronting the LeganÃ©s blast.

Testimonies came from a number of sources: Abdelkader Kounjaa, the brother of Abdennabi Kounjaa (known as "Abdallah") who was killed in the LeganÃ©s blast, and relatives of Jamal Ahmidan â€“ known as "the Chinese" and considered to be the mastermind behind the attacks â€“ including his brothers Mustafa and Youssef, his widow, and two of his friends. Abdelkader Kounjaa revealed that his brother telephoned him moments before the blast to say that "he was going to see God because he was surrounded by the police".

Read Luisa's report from the week of 26 March. Mustafa Ahmidan testified that the men in the flat were committed not to be taken alive. According to the testimony of the witnesses, the men who died in the LeganÃ©s blast all shared characteristics of fervent religiosity, radicalization, hatred, as well as a desire to fight in Chechnya. Testimony regarding "the Chinese" confirmed his direct participation in the attacks and in the final message of command found in a wastebasket on the M-30 highway. Mustafa Ahmidan further claimed that Jamal had reprimanded him about the attacks, saying they were just because so many "brothers" were dying in Iraq.

Such logic has less to do with justice than it has to do with revenge. Justice is what Spanish society and the victims of the attack hope to obtain through this process. It seems evident that if not for the events at LeganÃ©s, the Islamist cell would have continued with its lethal criminal activity. Investigators have gathered evidence from the debris of the explosion that suggests that the conspirators were planning future attacks.

Thus the LeganÃ©s blast ended the lives of a policeman and the conspirators, but also cut short the terrorists' bloody plans. Two high-ranking policemen, the general assistant director of operations, Pedro Diaz-Pintado, and the general commissioner of Information, JesÃºs de la Morena, also testified in the week's final sessions. Both agreed that from the afternoon of 11 March, once the type of explosive used was known, a second line of investigation was opened into the possibility of an Islamist attack, in parallel with the line of investigation into the possible involvement of the Basque separatist group ETA.

After an exhaustive and complex judicial investigation that has lasted more than two years, much is still unknown and many important witnesses have yet to testify. The trial of the greatest terror attack in European history will continue to offer revelations and surprises.

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Suicide in Leganes, Luisa Barrenechea