SPAIN:Twenty nine men - 20 of them Arabs and nine Spaniards - took their seats yesterday morning in a specially-equipped courthouse in Madrid to answer charges of 191 killings and injuries to more than 1,800 victims in one of the worst terrorist attacks in Europe since the second World War.
If found guilty, they face combined sentences of almost 300,000 years in jail, although 40 years is the maximum they would serve behind bars.
The massacres took place on March 11th 2004 when 10 bombs exploded almost simultaneously on four packed commuter trains as they were entering Madrid.
An unexploded bomb, found in an abandoned sports bag in one of the trains after the blasts, gave the first clues as to how the terrorists detonated the devices using mobile phones.
Only three of the men on trial in Madrid are alleged to have played a direct role in the killings. Seven others, along with an anti-terrorist police officer, died in a suicide bomb blast 10 days later as they blew themselves up after realising security forces had surrounded the building where they were hiding.
It soon became apparent that the attack was the work of Islamic fanatics acting under the umbrella of al-Qaeda; although some still support the theory that the terrorists were working in collaboration with the Basque terrorist movement Eta. Attempts by the Popular Party (PP) government of José Maria Aznar, who had allied himself so closely with president George W Bush, to back this conspiracy theory have been blamed for the PP's defeat in the general elections only four days after the massacre.
Within days of taking power, his successor, Socialist prime minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, ordered Spanish troops out of Iraq.
Eighteen of the accused were seated in a special bullet-proof glass cage, while the other 11 who have been out on bail, were seated on benches in open court. For the first time they could be seen face-to-face by some of the victims and their families. Many of the victims, who are accompanied by teams of psychologists, have complained that the 50 seats made available to them are insufficient, and they will be forced to watch the proceedings via closed circuit television screens in an adjoining room.
The first man to take the stand yesterday was Rabei Osman Ahmed, alias "The Egyptian", who is accused of masterminding and planning the attack. He was arrested in Italy and extradited to Spain after boasting in a phone call of being responsible for the atrocity.
He listened impassively as the charges against him were read out and translated into Arabic. He refused to reply to any questions in court. However, he later changed his mind and agreed to take the stand after the lunchtime adjournment.
The trial is expected to last for at least five months, and after that some of the defence lawyers have said they will request an adjournment to give them further time to prepare their cases. It is unlikely that any verdict will be reached before next October at the earliest.