Europe's Biggest Terror Trial Begins

[chlamor]

Spanish 'al-Qaida cell' trial begins

Associated Press
Friday April 22, 2005


A mass trial of 24 alleged members of al-Qaida began in Madrid today, with three of the defendants accused of involvement in the September 11 terror attacks in the US.

The defendants, who are mostly Muslims of Syrian and Moroccan origin, sat on wooden benches in a cramped, bulletproof chamber in a makeshift courtroom as the trial, before a three-judge panel, got under way amid high security. The court clerk read out the names of the defendants and the charges against them.

Spain is the second country after Germany to try suspects over the 2001 attacks, in which US passenger planes were hijacked and flown into the World Trade Centre in New York and the Pentagon in Washington.

The main suspect in the trial is Imad Yarkas, a 42-year-old father of six who, posing as a used-car salesman, is alleged to have overseen a cell that provided logistical cover for September 11 plotters such as Mohamed Atta, who is believed to have piloted one of the two airliners that destroyed the World Trade Centre.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/alqaida/story/0,12469,1466624,00.html