The trial this week heard over fifty witnesses. Testimony came from agents of the Guardia Civil, officials of the National Police, the proprietor and the neighbours of the property at Morata de Tajuña (where the attack was supposedly prepared), the person who received the call alerting the authorities to the existence of a video statement by the bombers, the police that went to collect the video, the owner of the robbed van that the terrorists used to transport explosives to the station, protected friends of a defendant, as well as witnesses related to the explosives plot, and workers at Conchita Mine, where the explosives were acquired.
Luisa Barrenechea is a lawyer and researcher of European counter-terrorism at FRIDE in Madrid.Some subjects continued to dominate proceedings: the lack of control at the Conchita Mine and the authorities' failures of coordination and evaluation regarding certain clues (such as the encounter between a member of the Guardia Civil and Jamal Ahmidan, "the Chinese", when he was returning from buying explosives in the Asturias, which, in spite of raising numerous suspicions was never pursued). This situation is unlikely to repeat itself. According to the testimony of a director of the Conchita Mine, reforms made in 2005 have gone a long way towards securing the mine and safeguarding the explosives therein. It would also be difficult at the present time for similar lapses in judgment on the part of security operatives to occur. Counterterrorist coordination and preparation has improved significantly in Spain since the 11-M attack.Read her previous reports from the trial proceedings on 30 March and 13 April.
Some witnesses tried without much success to make excuses on behalf of defendants, like the stepbrother of Jamal Zougam (for whom the prosecution have demanded 38,654 years in prison), who testified that his brother was sleeping at the time of the explosions in the trains. Nevertheless, other testimonies were clearly incriminating, like the one of the friend of Allekema Lamari, who testified that Lamari commented to him days after the attack that he would not allow the authorities to take him alive (and so it happened; he was one of the terrorists who committed suicide in the Leganés blast).
Imad Eddin Barakat, "Abu Dahdah", who has been condemned to 12 years of prison for leading a cell of al-Qaida in Spain, revealed in his long-awaited testimony on Tuesday that he had previously met two of the accused. In addition, he argued that the he didn't find it surprising that the attacks were prompted by the war on Iraq, "because abuses generate hatred", and said that in his view, the attackers were following the Takfir doctrine.
Again, we listened to a "justification" of the Madrid attacks as a direct result of the Iraq war, an interpretation not shared by Spanish analysts and counterterrorist experts. For the first time since the beginning of the trial, several victims testified, describing the scene of the explosions, its damage and repercussions, their desire for respect, their demand for criminal accountability, and in some cases in addition, a demand for political responsibility. These were moving testimonies heard in a crestfallen and quiet room, as the silence of the scene of the attack was remembered by the victims.
The toll is a heavy one: 191 people killed, 1,500 wounded, each one a history, each one a testimony. Only a few will be heard in this trial, but all victims will be "present" in the room. Judge Javier Gómez Bermúdez, with great procedural experience in counterterrorist matters and with authority and absolute control over the process, has begun to show his irritation with the logistics of translation, essential in a process in which 20 of the 29 accused are not Spanish, and speak several different dialects of Arabic.
But this seems to be only a minor blot on an otherwise successful process. In a trial of this volume and complexity, it is difficult to fault a procedure so organised, which continues to receive the full approval of the judiciary and the government. Many people work daily in ensuring that the trial works correctly and with normality. This includes the judge, who in spite of some specific cases of criticism, has gained the respect and the confidence of the victims, the lawyers and Spanish public opinion.
