France detains Egyptian man over Madrid attacks

PARIS, March 30 (AFP) – An Egyptian national has been detained in the Paris suburbs in connection with last year’s deadly train bombings in Madrid, sources close to the investigation said Wednesday.

The suspect, identified as 33-year-old Ahmed E., was placed in preventive detention on Tuesday and was to be interrogated by French counterespionage agents about his ties with a prime suspect in the attacks.

That suspect – Rabei Osman Sayed Ahmed, nicknamed “Mohamed the Egyptian” – was arrested in Italy last year and later extradited to Spain.

Sources close to the French probe said Ahmed E. might have given his countryman a place to stay outside Paris, and investigators are trying to determine the exact nature of the ties between the two men.

More than 20 suspected Islamic extremists, most of them Moroccans, are in jail facing trial for the Madrid bombings on March 11, 2004, which killed 191 people.