Key suspect in Madrid terror bombings to go on trial in Milan By AIDAN LEWIS Associated Press Writer MILAN, Italy An alleged ringleader of the March 2004 Madrid bombings goes on trial in Milan on Tuesday, charged with international terrorism and plotting another attack in an undisclosed location.
Italian police acting on a tip from their Spanish counterparts arrested Rabei Osman Sayed Ahmed in Milan three months after the Madrid attacks. He is accused of recruiting extremists as the head of a terrorist cell. The 34-year-old Egyptian is considered by Spanish and Italian authorities as a mastermind of the Madrid train bombings that killed 191 people and injured more than 1,500. Ahmed has maintained his innocence and denies belonging to a terrorist group. He has said that he is not the person speaking in intercepted conversations that Italian police say prove his role in the attacks. He also denies the conversations prove he was indoctrinating militants for suicide bomb missions in Iraq and elsewhere. Italian police said in a report summarizing the investigation that Ahmed was also trying "to construct cells at a European level in order to carry out terrorist actions on the model of Madrid." Also standing trial is 22-year-old Egyptian Yahia Ragheh, picked up in the same operation as Ahmed and described by authorities as a would-be suicide bomber. Roberta Ligotti, defense lawyer for Ragheh, said Monday that prosecutors had pressed charges "without identifying specific people with whom Ragheh was associated and without mention of specific attacks." Both Ahmed and Ragheh are accused of subversive association aimed at international terrorism, a charge introduced after the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States as Italy stepped up its efforts against terrorist suspects. Arrested in a Europe-wide operation that also saw 15 suspected Islamic militants detained in Belgium and the Netherlands, Ahmed has been linked to terrorist cells across Europe. Investigators traced his movements in the years before the Madrid attacks in countries including Spain, France, Germany and Italy, and have detailed his frequent contact with Islamic extremists. Italy's Interior Minister Giuseppe Pisanu said after Ahmed's arrest that he was "probably among the principal authors" of the Madrid bombings, and that he was "preparing other attacks." Italian prosecutors have cited the case as an example of cooperation between European authorities. Police here began monitoring Ahmed shortly after the Madrid bombings, intercepting conversations with Ragheh they say confirm Ahmed's role. "There is something, there is something I can't hide from you," Italian police quote him as telling Ragheh in their report on the probe. "The Madrid attack is my project and those who died as martyrs are my dearest friends." Ahmed was extradited to Spain for four months where he was questioned on the Madrid attacks by Spanish officials, and returned to Italy last April. Spanish judge Juan del Olmo has filed provisional charges against him of mass murder and terrorism, though Ahmed has not been indicted in Spain. In the arrest warrant for Ahmed, del Olmo said the Egyptian "managed to take control of a small group of Arab followers, all of them with extremist Islamic ideology, supporters of jihad and Osama bin Laden." A senior Spanish judge warned last week that the probe into the Madrid bombings is going so slowly that some suspects might have to be released from custody before a trial takes place. Twenty-six suspects are jailed in Spain in connection with the bombings, which were claimed by Islamic militants who said they had acted on behalf of al-Qaida. Ragheh's lawyer Ligotti said Ahmed could face a sentence as high as 15 years, while the maximum sentence for Ragheh, accused of participating in the terror cell, would be eight years. 060130 183943 Copyright 2006 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. 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