SPAIN: Three Moroccans detained last weekend in connection with the Madrid train atrocity have been charged with 190 counts of murder and 1,400 of attempted murder, membership of a terrorist organisation and stealing a vehicle, writes Jane Walker in Madrid
Altogether 202 people died in the massacre, but only 190 of them have been identified and included on the charge sheet.
Two Indians, arrested at the same time, have been charged with collaborating with a terrorist organisation and falsifying commercial papers. After interrogation by the examining magistrate, Judge Juan de Olmo, the five were remanded in custody.
They are being detained in a top-security jail near Madrid under the anti-terrorism law, which permits them to be held incommunicado for up to five days. Their remand can be extended for a further five days, but the judge must then make another order, and they will have access to a court-appointed lawyer.
Their court hearing lasted throughout the night, and all denied taking any part in the attack. Jamal Zougam is alleged to be the ringleader of the gang, with links to al-Qaeda, and suspected of taking part in the Casablanca bombings. He has been identified by eyewitnesses as being on the train last Thursday morning.
He spent the four-hour hearing without looking at the judge, weeping and shouting his innocence, ending his testimony praying to Allah. He only admitted knowing Imat Barakat, alias Abu Dadah, the alleged leader of the al-Qaeda cell in Spain, but said he had not seen him since 2001 when Barakat was imprisoned for terrorist activities.
His stepbrother, Mohamed Chaoui, and the third Moroccan, Mohamed Bekali, both claimed to have been sleeping when the bombs exploded and only heard about them when a friend telephoned them three hours later.
Four other Moroccans arrested near Madrid and the only Spaniard who has been named to date are being held in police custody. The Spaniard, who was detained in Asturias, is thought to be a miner who supplied the Goma 2 dynamite used in the bombing by stealing it from the mine where he worked.
The explosive has been traced to the Burgos plant of the Union Expañola de Explosivos (UEE) where it was manufactured last February. The copper detonators were also made by UEE, but in this case in its factory near Bilbao.
The Algerian detained in San Sebastian on Monday and questioned for possible links with the terrorists was released yesterday. Last January, Ali Amrous threatened Basque police that Atocha Station would be "piled with bodies" when he was arrested on a drug-dealing charge. But after interrogation by Judge Baltasar Garzón there was insufficient evidence to detain him and he was set free.
When The Irish Times spoke last weekend to Ignacio Astarloa, the secretary of state for security, he said that the discovery of an unexploded bomb in a bag in one of the trains could yield important clues. They were particularly interested in the mobile phone attached to a container of Goma 2, and the SIM card it contained.
Police have returned several times to search Mr Zougam's phone shop, and it was reported in Madrid yesterday that the phone did provide that vital clue. A small piece of plastic missing from the mobile phone in the bag has been found by detectives in his Nuevo Siglo phone store.
The Aznar government continues to fight to save its honour after accusations that it manipulated and delayed information linking Islamic terrorists to the attack. The former government's release of declassified documents detailing events after the bombings has failed to convince the country.
The mood in Madrid continues to be tense. The film director Pedro Almodovar was forced to apologise to the Popular Party after he repeated rumours that PP had planned a coup d'état in the hours before the polls opened.