Expatica news

Madrid terror suspect held in Morocco

4 May 2004

RABAT – A man wanted in connection with the 11 March train bombings in Madrid is being held in Morocco, authorities said Tuesday.

Hicham Ahmidan, 24, was picked up by police in Tangiers on 25 March, Moroccan security officials said.

They said he was held on drugs charges, but made no mention of other offences.

Ahmidan – a relative of one of the Madrid suspects who died during a police raid in April – is wanted by Spain in connection with the bombings.

He is among five men named in international arrest warrants issued on 26 April.

Morocco’s national security agency said Ahmidan illegally emigrated to Spain and later turned to drug dealing in Madrid.

They said he returned to Morocco to visit his family in early March, and was arrested later that month.

A Moroccan human rights groups last week claimed Ahmidan had been held in a jail incommunicado in his own country for a month, breaking rules on prisoners’ rights.

Ahmidan is related to Jamal Ahmidan, alias El Chino (The Chinese)  or Mowgli, one of the suspected leaders of the Madrid attacks.

Jamal Ahmidan is one of seven men who appeared to have blown themselves up deliberately when their flat was surrounded by Spanish police on 3 April.

A police officer was killed and four others injured in the blast in the suburb of Leganes.

The bombing of commuter trains in Madrid killed 192 people and injured more than 1,500 others.

The attacks are believed to have been the work of Islamic militants with links to al-Qaeda.

The Spanish authorities have brought provisional charges against more than a dozen suspects – many of whom are Moroccans.

[Copyright EFE with Expatica]

Subject: Spanish news