JURIST - Paper Chase: Italy court convicts suspect in 2004 Madrid bombings

[JURIST] An Italian court on Monday convicted Egyptian Rabei Osman Sayed Ahmed [CBC profile] for his role in the 2004 Madrid train bombings [JURIST news archive], sentencing him to ten years in prison. Ahmed's trial began earlier this year [JURIST report] and marks the first conviction for any suspects in the bombings, which killed 191 people and injured almost 2000 more. Prosecutors had alleged that Ahmed helped orchestrate [JURIST report] the Madrid attacks and later sought to recruit extremists in Milan. Reuters has more.

In a related development, Spanish prosecutors announced Monday that they will seek jail terms for convicted suspects that will extend well beyond their lives. Prosecutor Olga Sanchez said that she will seek sentences of over 38,000 years each for seven of 29 suspects [JURIST report] expected to go on trial in February [JURIST report]. Sanchez calculated the jail terms by adding 30 year terms for each of the 191 bombing deaths and 18 year terms for each of 1,820 attempted murders of persons injured but not killed. Spanish law required Sanchez to request jail terms amounting to thousands of years because Spain does not allow life sentences without the possibility of parole. Sanchez will likely send her final report to the National Court this week formally requesting the jail terms. AP has more.

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