Madrid, Spain – Spanish prosecutors demanded on Monday some of the stiffest sentences in the country’s history for the seven lead suspects in the 2004 Madrid train bombings, seeking jail terms of more than 38,000 years for each.
The sentence request was included in the 300-page pretrial recommendations that prosecutor Olga Sanchez presented to the National Court on Monday, chief prosecutor Javier Zaragoza told reporters.
He said the prosecutor’s office was seeking large jail terms “for the intellectual culprits, the direct culprits and those needed to help to carry out the Madrid attacks.”
Among the prime suspects is Jamal Zougam, a Moroccan merchant who allegedly supplied cellphones used as detonators in the 10 backpack bombs that ripped through four crowded commuter trains the morning of March 11, 2004.
One hundred ninety-one people died in the blasts, and hundreds were injured, with many losing limbs or remaining paralyzed for life.
Zougam has said he had nothing to do with the plot. But the court indictment says witnesses have identified him as having been aboard the trains that were bombed.
The six other lead suspects mentioned in Sanchez’s document are Moroccans Basel Ghal youn, Abdelmajid Bouchar, Youssef Belhadj and Hassan el Haski, Spaniard Emilio Trashorras, accused of supplying the dynamite, and Egyptian Rabei Osman. Osman was convicted on international terrorism charges Monday, receiving 10 years in prison in Italy.
In her report, Sanchez says the seven face prison terms of 30 years for each of the 191 killings and 18 years for the 1,820 attempted murders. Combined, the sentence request comes to 38,490 years for each.
But under Spanish law, terrorism convicts can face no more than 40 years in prison, since the country has neither the death penalty nor provisions for life in prison without parole.
