National
Supreme Court starts to hear appeals against the Madrid Train Bombing sentences
By h.b.
Jun 30, 2008 - 5:17 PM

The Supreme Court has today held the first of three sessions in which it will look at the 31 appeals which have been presented before against the sentences awarded in the Madrid train bombings case following the massacre on March 11 2004, in which 191 people lost their lives and more than 1,500 were injured.

Among those placing an appeal are the Prosecutors Office, the March 11 Help for the Victims Association, and the March 11 Association of those Affected by Terrorism. Several personal appeals have also been placed against 22 of the 28 charged.

The Prosecutors Office was only challenging the decision to rlease the man known as ‘The Egyptian’. They say Rabei Osman El Sayed should spend ten years in prison, but no longer consider him to have been the brains behind the massacre.

The original trial, presided in the National Court by Judge Javier Gómez Bermúdez, found eight of the 29 charged in the case not guilty and only handed down three sentences running into thousands of years – against Otman El Gnanoui (42.924), Jamal Zougam (42.922) and José Emilio Suárez Trashorras (34.715), considering them to be the three main players in the massacre.

The other 21 accused were handed down prison sentences of between 3 and 23 years on minor charges, such as belonging to an armed gang or drug trafficking.