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| Last word: Of the 28 accused bombers in the March 2004 Madrid train attacks, 21 were found guilty by Spain's National Court
on Wednesday. Paco Campos/Reuters |
Deep divisions over Madrid verdict
Some victims' families feel jilted by high court's decision Wednesday on the March 2004 train attack.
By Lisa Abend | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitorfrom the November 1, 2007 edition
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Madrid - A mixed verdict in the trial of 28 suspects in the 2004 Madrid train bombings threatens to underscore the deep divisions that have opened in Spain since the attack, which killed 191 people and prompted a rapid shift in Spain's political course.
Spain's National Court found 21 of the accused guilty of participating in or abetting the bomb attacks that tore through Madrid train stations on March 11, 2004. Three lead suspects, two Moroccan and one Spanish, were convicted of murder and attempted murder and given sentences of more than 30,000 years each.
But the court also acquitted eight suspects, including the alleged mastermind, Egyptian Rabei Osman, who is in jail in Italy on other terrorism charges. Many of the other accused received sentences much lighter than expected.
For Raul Castilla, whose father died in the bombings, the ruling felt like an assault. "In this country, they let assassins loose on the streets."
Others, however, saw the trial as a successful imposition of justice. Unlike the United States, Spain did not have to draft new legislation to deal with Islamist terrorists. "We already had an efficient legal framework in place because of [Basque separatist group] ETA; we had the right laws to confront terrorism," says Rogelio Alonso, terrorism expert at Madrid's King Juan Carlos University. "This trial shows that those laws work."
The 10 bombs set on four commuter trains early March 11 injured nearly 2,000 people in addition to killing 191.
Socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis RodrÃguez Zapatero, whose party swept into office after the bombings, said that "justice was rendered today." Earlier in the week, he had expressed hope the verdict would "give a definitive answer to those who have put forth ... despicable doubts about March 11."
Debate over the justice of the sentence is already filling the Spanish media and may broaden the fissures in Spanish society that are the bombing's most dramatic legacy.
In the eyes of many Spaniards, the attacks paved the way for Prime Minister Zapatero's unexpected victory over the ruling conservative Popular Party. It was the first time an administration that backed the US-led war in Iraq was voted out of power. Many of the suspects allegedly were motivated by loyalties to Al Qaeda and anger at Spanish troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
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