4 November 2004

MADRID-Spanish police arrested on Thursday three Algerians and a Moroccan over an alleged plot by an Islamist cell to blow up the High Court and other Madrid landmarks.

The three Algerians, who were not immediately identified, were arrested in the south-eastern city of Gandia.

Hours earlier, a Moroccan who is accused of being a member of the same radical Islamic involved in the bomb plot was also arrested.

Spain's leading anti-terrorist judge, Baltazar Garzon, ordered the arrest of Faissal Allouch.

There have now been 17 suspects arrested in connection with the plot to bomb the Audiencia Nacional, Spain's national criminal court, and landmarks including Real Madrid's football stadium, the Picasso Tower, and major railway stations.

Allouch was arrested first in March in connection with the Madrid bomb attacks in which 191 people were killed and more than 1,500 people injured.

But Allouch was later released on conditional bail.

Those arrested in connection with the plot to bomb the Audiencia Nacional were members of a group called the Martyrs for Morocco, who planned to stage a suicide attack.

They are lead by Mohamed Achraf, an imam who was arrested in Switzerland.

[Copyright EFE with Expatica]

Subject: Spanish news