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Spanish National Court releases Madrid train bomb suspect from custody
By m.p - Sep 4, 2007 - 10:18 PM
ALSO SEE : • Madrid train bomb suspect arrested in Morocco at Spain's request - Jan 28, 2008 - 7:38 PM
• Spanish National Court acquits Moroccan suspect charged with extolling terrorism - Nov 8, 2007 - 10:18 PM

Mahmoud Slimane during the Madrid train bombing trial. Photo – EFE.
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Mahmoud Slimane was immediately re-arrested on a deportation order to his home country, Lebanon
One of those accused in the Madrid train bombings trial – the terrorist attack on 11th March 2004 which is referred to in Spain as 11-M – has been released from preventive custody in the case.

He is named as Mahmoud Slimane Aoun, and faced 13 years in prison at the trial in the National Court: ten for collaborating with a terrorist organisation and a further three years for document forgery.

The defendant’s lawyer, Cristóbal Gil del Campo, told El Mundo newspaper that he believed his client’s release came after the court found him guilty only of the lesser charge. Slimane had already served the three years on remand following his arrest in July 2004.

He was, however, immediately re-arrested by officers from the police foreigners’ department under a deportation order to his home country, Lebanon, and is currently being held in police cells in Toledo.

The deportation order was issued by central government offices in Jaén province, Andalucía, in April 2005.

The prosecution accuse Slimane of helping Jamal Ahmidan – known as El Chino – in forging documents for the terrorist cell which carried out the attacks in Madrid.

El Chino was the leader of the cell, and was one of those who died in the suicide bombing in a Leganés flat on the outskirts of Madrid which killed seven terrorists and a police officer.
The suicides came a little over two weeks after the massacre in the Spanish capital which killed 191 people.

The explosion in the Leganés flat. Photo - EFE Archives.
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Slimane tearfully condemned the bombings when he appeared in court at the start of the trial at the end of February this year, saying that the sight of a woman in tears after the attack reminded him of his mother crying over his father’s death during the war in Lebanon.

More than three years down the line, eighteen of the 28 originally charged in the case remain in custody.


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ALSO SEE :
• Madrid train bomb suspect arrested in Morocco at Spain's request - Jan 28, 2008 - 7:38 PM
• Spanish National Court acquits Moroccan suspect charged with extolling terrorism - Nov 8, 2007 - 10:18 PM
• Spanish Interior Minister to PP leader: Repeat with me, it was not ETA - Nov 1, 2007 - 11:32 PM
• Verdict date announced in Madrid train bomb massacre - Oct 10, 2007 - 11:21 PM
• Car used by Madrid massacre suicide bomber found in Ceuta - Oct 8, 2007 - 10:52 PM
• National Court lawyers claim the AVT is prejudicing the fight agaist terrorism - Jun 20, 2007 - 4:35 PM
• Experts report no explosives link to ETA in Madrid Train Bombing case - May 16, 2007 - 7:32 AM
• Interesting testimony in the Madrid Train Bombings case - May 6, 2007 - 10:33 AM
• The three ETA activists deny in court any link to the Madrid train bombings - Apr 23, 2007 - 6:30 PM
• I heard a phone ring five times, and then the train exploded - Apr 19, 2007 - 8:48 AM