Prosecutor to appeal acquittal of Madrid bombings top suspect

Nov 6, 2007, 14:46 GMT

Madrid - Prosecutors at Spain's National Court will appeal against the acquittal of one of the top suspects in the 2004 Madrid bombings trial, sources representing them said Tuesday.

Spain's top anti-terrorism court acquitted seven in a total of 28 accused last week of involvement in Europe's biggest al-Qaeda-inspired attack, which killed 191 and injured more than 1,800 people.

Those acquitted included Rabei Osman el-Sayed Ahmed, known as Mohammed the Egyptian, who had been suspected of masterminding the bombings.

The court said there was not sufficient evidence against el-Sayed, who had allegedly described the bombings as his idea in a conversation taped by Italian police, and for whom prosecutors were requesting nearly 40,000 years in prison.

The court could have sentenced el-Sayed for belonging to a terrorist organization, but did not do so, because he is already serving an eight-year sentence for the same offence in Italy, media reported.

The daily El Pais said Tuesday that the court had acquitted el-Sayed by error, because the sentence in Italy has been appealed against.

Court president Javier Gomez Bermudez, however, said that the Italian sentence did not have to be final for el-Sayed to be acquitted in Spain.