Madrid bombing suspect detained again after release

5 September 2007

MADRID – (AFP) – Spanish immigration police detained one of the 28 defendants in the 2004 Madrid train bombings trial Tuesday, shortly after a court ordered him released from jail while he awaits a verdict, his lawyer said.

Police detained Mahmoud Slimane Aoun on the grounds that there is an outstanding order to deport him to his native Lebanon, Cristobal Gil del Campo told the Europa Press news agency.

The deportation order was issued in April 2005 while Aoun was still being held in preventative detention for the Madrid train bombings and he was unaware of its existence, the lawyer added.

Aoun is accused of collaborating with a terrorist organisation and falsifying documents and could face up to 13 years in prison if convicted.

Earlier on Tuesday a Spanish court granted him a conditional release, noting that he had already spent three years behind bars, sparking anger from some family members of victims of the train bombings.

In July high court prosecutor Javier Zaragoza said it was “likely” that some of the 28 suspects would be acquitted “owing to a lack of sufficient incriminating evidence against them.”

The four-month trial of suspects allegedly involved in Spain’s worst attack, which killed 191 people and injured 1,841 others, ended in July ahead of verdicts scheduled for October.

The blasts were claimed in the name of Al-Qaeda.

The trial saw testimony from more than 300 witnesses during 57 sessions, and all those accused protested their innocence.

The top suspects face sentences of up to 40,000 years each for the deaths and for belonging to a terrorist organisation, although under Spanish law the longest jail term anyone can actually serve is 40 years.

There were originally 29 suspects on trial but prosecutors in June dropped charges against one man, Moroccan Brahim Moussaten, for lack of evidence.

[Copyright AFP with Expatica]

Subject: Spanish news