29 October 2004

MADRID - Spanish police have arrested 13 more suspected Islamic extremists in connection with an alleged plot to bomb the country's national court.

Eight of the new arrests were made late Thursday in Madrid, Cadiz and Valencia while five suspects were already in custody.

They bring to 30 the number of arrests in connection with the alleged plot.

National Court Judge Baltasar Garzon imprisoned 17 suspects - ten of them already in prison for other crimes - last week on suspicion of being members of a group called Martyrs for Morocco.

"These [new] arrests are the result of all the documentation seized from the detainees last week and all the information gathered by the judge during their interrogations," a police source said.

The terrorists are said to have planned to detonate a lorry loaded with 500 kg of explosives near the Audiencia Nacional, Spain's national criminal court where all terrorist cases are heard.

No weapons or explosives have been found.

The 13 new suspects are said to include nine Algerians and four Moroccans.

A man being held in Switzerland is fighting extradition to Spain to face charges of planning the attack on Madrid's highest court.

Mohamed Achraf is said to be an Algerian leader of a militant Islamic group.

Spain's Interior Ministry said suspects were in contact with other individuals in Europe, the US and Australia.

Around 20 suspects are currently being held in custody over alleged links to the March attacks on commuters in Madrid, in which 191 people were killed and more than 1,500 injured.

A further seven were killed when their explosives blew up as police approached their hide-out in Madrid.

[Copyright EFE with Expatica]

Subject: Spanish news