| Europe |
| 32 Indicted in Spain for Courthouse Plot |
| 2006-03-21 |
| MADRID, Spain (AP) -- A Spanish judge indicted 32 people for allegedly plotting to drive a truck packed with explosives into a courthouse that has been the hub of anti-terrorism investigations, authorities said Tuesday. The 32 men, mostly Algerians, were charged with membership in a terrorist organization, conspiracy to commit a terrorist attack and forgery of public documents, Judge Fernando Grande-Marlaska said in his March 13 ruling. The suspects include Mohamed Achraf, the alleged mastermind who was extradited from Switzerland to Spain in April. Spanish authorities suspect Achraf was planning to ram a truck loaded with 1,100 pounds of explosives into the court in downtown Madrid. |
| Link |
| Europe |
| Turkish terrorist jailed in Spain |
| 2006-01-17 |
| Saffet Karakoc, a Turkish national captured in an operation to round up suspected members of terrorist groups last Tuesday in Spain, has been imprisoned following an investigation. A Spanish National Court has decided to charge 14 of 17 investigated individuals and release three of them conditionally. Court sources notified Karakoc, and his Spanish wife Kerime Benedicto Gallego, were among those charged; Judge Fernando Grande Marlaska heard the couple. Reportedly, Karakoc, charged with helping to train individuals in Spain and sending them to Iraq to conduct terrorist attacks, has traveled to Syria and Iraq on several occasions. It was announced 20 people who have been captured in Spain belong to the Morocco Islamic Combatant Organization and Salafist Group in Algeria. The interrogations of three other people and Moroccan Omer Nakca, who has been accepted as the leader of both terrorist groups will be conducted on Tuesday. |
| Link |
| Europe |
| Yet another Moroccan mystery man for 3/11 |
| 2005-05-18 |
| A Moroccan man in jail for the 2003 Casablanca attacks inspired and indoctrinated militants who are prime suspects in the 2004 Madrid train bombings, a Spanish judge said on Wednesday. Mustapha Maimouni, 33, led a cell that singled out Spain for attack because of the previous government's support for the war in Iraq, the judge said, indicating Maimouni may have been a mastermind behind the Madrid bombings, which killed 191 people. "In Madrid, Maimouni summoned and radically indoctrinated (Madrid bombing suspects) and others who are the subject of other investigations with the goal of carrying out jihad (holy war)," Judge Fernando Grande-Marlaska wrote in a court order. The court order issued on Wednesday formally charged 13 people, including Maimouni, with belonging to a terrorist organization. The suspects, most of whom are in jail, were not directly charged with the train bombings. The order also sought the extradition of Maimouni from Morocco, where he was arrested in May 2003, shortly after the coordinated attacks in Casablanca by radical Islamists that killed 45 people, including 12 suicide bombers. The court document traced some of Spain's most wanted Islamist militants to a cell established by Maimouni in late 2002 or early 2003. "In these meetings it was agreed that as a consequence of Spain having entered the war in Iraq it became an enemy of Islam, and that's why they had to attack in this country," the judge said. In a video claiming responsibility for the Madrid attacks, masked men said they were taking revenge on Spain for sending troops to Iraq and Afghanistan. Among the others said to have come under the influence of Maimouni was Driss Chebli, one of 24 men currently on trial in Spain on charges of belonging to al Qaeda and one of three charged with mass murder for the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on U.S. cities. Grande-Marlaska, an investigating magistrate, is following a probe begun by Baltasar Garzon, who is on leave. It is one of nine investigations into suspected Islamist militant groups in Spain and separate from the inquiry into the commuter rail attacks in Madrid. Spanish investigators are still searching for the true mastermind or masterminds of the Madrid bombings, which struck three days before a general election. Among those the judge said were members of Maimouni's cell, though not charged, were prime train bombing suspects Serhane ben Abdelmajid Farkhet, also known as "The Tunisian," Rabei Osman Sayed Ahmed, alias "Mohamed the Egyptian," and Said Berraj. Farkhet was one of 24 men currently on trial in Spain on charges of belonging to al Qaeda and one of three charged with mass murder for the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on U.S. cities. Ahmed was arrested in Italy, and Berraj remains a fugitive. Investigators have assigned leadership roles to all of them in the Madrid attacks. Maimouni himself was recruited into jihad by Amer Azizi, one of Spain's most wanted fugitives, the judge said. |
| Link |