JURIST - Paper Chase: Madrid court bomb plot suspects on trial in Spain

[JURIST] The trial of 30 suspected terrorists [BBC report] accused of plotting to explode the Spanish National Court in Madrid began Monday. The defendants are charged with membership in a terrorist organization, conspiracy to commit a terrorist attack and forgery. The group, led by alleged mastermind Abderrahmane Tahiri, also known as Mohamed Achraf, allegedly planned to run a truck loaded with 1,100 pounds of explosives into the court house, creating an explosion that could have killed up to 1,000 people. Switzerland extradited Tahiri to Spain in 2005 [BBC report] to face charges in Spain.

Spanish judge Baltasar Garzon first charged 17 members of the group in 2004 after police initially arrested eight suspects [JURIST reports] in the plot. Spain's National Court is widely viewed as the center of Spain's anti-terror investigations, and the bomb plot was aimed at killing the country's top judges and case files. AP has more. El Mundo has local coverage, in Spanish.

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