The Madrid bombing trial draws to a close
With sentencing scheduled for October, the procedural phase of Europe's largest terrorism trial ends.
9 - 07 - 2007
The procedural phase of the Madrid bombing trial came to a close on 2 July, with sentencing thought to begin in mid-October. The office of the public prosecutor believes that the attacks were the work of a jihadist cell linked with al Qaida. Its members were mainly those who committed suicide in the Leganés blast, but also, according to the prosecutors, included Mohamed Afalah and Daoud Ouhname and other defendants.
The prosecutors consider that the "intellectual authors" of the attacks are proven to be the defendants Rabei Osman el-Sayed, Hassan el-Haski and Youssef Belhadj, all for whom the prosecution have demanded a sentence of 38,962 years in jail (30 years for each completed murders, 18 years for each "attempted murder", 14 years for terrorist conspiracy and 20 years for each for crimes of damage).
Luisa Barrenechea is a lawyer and researcher of European counter-terrorism at FRIDE in Madrid. For the surviving "material authors" of the attacks - principally Jamal Zougam and Abdelmajid Bouchar - the prosecutors have asked for similar sentences.
The prosecutors have raised their initially requested sentence of 20 years to 38,958 years for the former police informant Rafá Zouhier, who they describe as a "determining intermediary" between the procurement of explosives in the Asturias and the eventual Islamist bombers.
Other defendants saw their requested sentences reduced. The prosecution has slashed the penalties for many of those defendants linked to the Asturias explosives plot from 8 to 4 years. However, Carmen Toro, the girlfriend of Emilio Suárez Trashorras, faces an augmented possible sentence of 6 years for her illicit association with the chief explosive trafficker.
Read her previous reports from the trial proceedings on 30 March, 13 April, 20 April, 27 April, 29 May and 8 June.The several associations of victims of the attacks maintained similar conclusions to those of the prosecution, differing only in respect to the precise final tally of the wounded. However, the "Association of Victims of Terrorism" and the "Association of Aid to the Victims of 11-M" expressed concern that insufficient concrete evidence was brought to bear upon several of the main defendants.
The defense lawyers of the 28 accused continue to ask for the full acquittal of their defendants, arguing that the evidence brought before the court does not prove the participation of their clients. The lawyer of Jamal Zougam and Basel Ghayoun has gone so far as to insist upon the invalidity of the trial process and demand the cancellation of evidence brought against his clients.
With the procedural phase drawn to its close, the court now begins the complex work of determining sentences for the 28 accused. When sentences are delivered (most likely in October), the judicial process dealing with the most significant terrorist attack in Spanish history will come to an end. We will know who turned Madrid on 11 March, 2004 into the city of the "trains of the death".
Thanks to all of you readers for following these commentaries. One can only hope that the sentence is just and exemplary, and demonstrates that terrorism can be fought through the justice and the rule of law.
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