MADRID: The biggest Al-Qaeda related trial in Europe resumed Monday with one of the men accused of bombing Madrid commuter trains in 2004 denying all charges and any link with Osama bin Laden s terror network.
Moroccan Jamal Zougam is one of 29 defendants on trial for involvement in the bombings that left 191 dead and more than 1,800 injured. I condemn unreservedly these attacks. This is to all intents and purposes my country, I work here, I live here, eat here, said Zougam, 33, who insisted he was in bed at home when 10 bombs ripped through four packed commuter trains on March 11, 2004 Zougam was the fourth of seven main suspects to speak at the trial, which opened Thursday. Unlike his co-defendants, however, he was the first to agree to address the entire court rather than limiting his remarks to his defence counsel. Four witnesses said they saw Zougam on one of the targeted trains and anti-terrorist judge Baltasar Garzon previously alleged he had links with a Spanish Al-Qaeda cell accused of aiding in the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in the United States. Zougam was not charged on that occasion but Morocco told Spain in 2003 that he was particularly dangerous . Zougam, clad in a cream sweater with multi-colored hoops, said he went to work at his phone shop on the day of the blasts after getting up around 10am – two-and-a-half hours after the bombs went off. Investigations have shown the telephone SIM cards used in the mobile phones strapped to the bombs and used to activate them came from the shop. No traces of Zougam s DNA have been found at any of the sites where the bombs are believed to have been put together and he again denied any links to the attacks, saying he had never been there when questioned over each site in turn. Basel Ghalyoun, a 26-year-old Syrian who also stands accused of being a bomber, and Moroccan Abdelmajid Bouchar, another top suspect, were due to follow Zougam into the dock. Ghalyoun is said to have been closely linked to Serhane Ben Abdelmajid Fakhet, one of the seven men who blew themselves up in a police raid on a flat outside Madrid three weeks after the raid. In last week s sessions, alleged plot masterminds Youssef Belhadj and Hassan El-Haski, both Moroccan, and Egyptian Rabei Ousmane Sayed Ahmed all denied any involvement, and condemned the attacks. They refused to address the court save for their defence lawyers. Although neither an alleged planner nor an alleged bomber, Spaniard Jose Emilio Suarez Trashorras faces the most charges as a suspected supplier of explosives in exchange for drugs. The 30-year-old former miner faces murder charges for the 191 killed, the attempted murders of the injured and is further accused of the murder of a policeman who died in the police raid in the suburb of Leganes as well as the attempted murder of 10 other police officers.
