Expatica news

Dutch police arrest manover Madrid bombing

19 August 2004

AMSTERDAM — Spanish anti-terrorist officers are in the Netherlands to help establish the identity of a man arrested in connection with the 11 March train bombings in Madrid that killed 191 people.

The man was among a total of nine people arrested when Dutch police officers raided two addresses Wednesday in the southern city Roosendaal, near the Belgian border.

The Spanish interior ministry said on Thursday that  “several people” were being questioned in the Netherlands, but declined to give details. The Spanish media has reported investigators believe they had detained two Moroccans sought by Spanish examining judge Juan del Olmo, news agency AFP reproted.

The Dutch authorities have so far only confirmed one man was being held who police believe may be linked to the Madrid bombings.

Locals living near the old market area of Roosendaal told the Dutch media they were roused from their beds by police at 4am and ordered to leave their homes. Once the area was cleared specialist teams carried out the arrests.

Justice spokesman Wim de Bruin said on Thursday the authorities hoped to establish the man’s true identity over the next few days. The arrests followed a tip-off from Spanish police that one or more 11 March suspects were in the Netherlands.

A second man is being held in custody after he was allegedly caught in possession of 600 ecstasy pills and half a kilo of cocaine. The other seven are illegal residents and have been handed over the immigration authorities.

Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant said Spanish intelligence sources believed that Moroccans Mohamed Belhadj, 24, and Mohammed Afalah, 28, may have sought shelter in the Netherlands after escaping a police raid on an apartment in Spain.

Seven other 11 March suspects blew themselves up when the police surrounded the apartment in a Madrid suburb on 3 April.

The Dutch authorities are emphasising that it had yet to establish whether the main suspect held in Roosendaal is one of the people wanted in connection to the Madrid atrocities. They have also not confirmed whether they believe the man is one of the two Moroccans.
 
[Copyright Expatica News 2004]

Subject: Dutch news, Spanish news, 11 March, Madrid train bombing