SPAIN: Former Spanish premier Mr José María Aznar has been summoned before a parliamentary commission investigating the Madrid train bombings to give his version of the most devastating attack in modern Spanish history.
"The commission has decided unanimously that Aznar should appear," Uxue Barkos of the Nafarroa Bai party, a representative on the commission, told reporters yesterday.
This is the first time a former prime minister has been called before a parliamentary commission. No date has been set for his appearance.
Ten bombs exploded aboard four commuter trains on March 11th, killing 191 people three days before a general election.
Many Spaniards, and indeed members of the foreign community, believe the election result was swayed by Mr Aznar initially blaming Basque separatist guerillas ETA while hard evidence was pointing to Islamic militants.
At that time, opinion polls carried out prior to the Madrid attacks were pointing to a comfortable election win for Mr Mariano Rajoy, Mr Aznar's hand-picked candidate who was expected to continue Mr Aznar's pro-US policies. But widespread anger over the Aznar government's insistence that ETA was the prime suspect led to a voter backlash and helped propel Socialist candidate Mr José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero to power in an election that recorded one of the largest voter turnouts ever.
The commission is expected to ask Mr Aznar what precautionary measures he ordered against Islamic militants after he closely aligned Spain with the White House on the Iraq war and later sent Spanish troops there, despite 90 per cent of the public who opposed the move.
In the hours following the attacks, militants saying they belonged to al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for the atrocities, calling them revenge against Spain for sending troops to Iraq and Afghanistan.
On his first day in office, Mr Zapatero ordered Spain's 1,300 troops back from the Gulf country, in keeping with his campaign pledge.
The criminal investigation into the Madrid attacks has so far led to 55 people being arrested, more than half of whom remain in custody.
The judge who is leading the case has described the bombers as Islamic radicals, for the most part Moroccans, who financed their operation through drug dealing and other petty crime.
News that Mr Aznar would testify came as police in Barcelona arrested 10 people, mostly Pakistanis, in early morning raids.
A High Court source said the arrests were part of an operation against "Islamic terrorism", but not related to the Madrid attacks. Documents were seized but no explosives or weapons were found, officials said.