National
Madrid train bomb victims will have to wait some three years for all their compensation payments
By h.b.
Nov 6, 2007 - 8:31 AM

The victims of the Madrid Train Bombings will have to wait three more years to collect their compensation payments. For now, they will be granted advances, and 220,000 € has been paid out by the state so far.

The reason for the delay is that the payments cannot be legally made in Spain until the sentence is considered to be firm, and that means the two or three year delay given the appeals which have been presented.

Some of the Victims’ Associations themselves have made an appeal to the Supreme Court, particularly against the seven men found not guilty, and so in some ways have created the situation.

However a Solidarity Law, created in 1999, means that while such processes are underway they can claim and obtain advance damages. This explains why the families of the 192 people to die in the bombings have already collected 220,000 of the 900,000 € due to them.

The court made special provisions for Laura Vega, who remains in a coma since the bombings. Her family will receive a million € and a special fund will be created to cover her future health costs.