Three suspects held in connection with the Madrid train bombings were accused yesterday of 190 murders and of belonging to a "terrorist group", High Court sources said.
Another two suspects were accused of cooperating with a "terrorist group," the sources said. The term "accusation" under Spanish law means that there are believed to be indications they could be involved.
The five -- three Moroccans and two Indians who have been in custody since last Saturday -- have denied, however, any link to the radical Islamist al-Qaeda network, the sources added.
Spain's High Court was expected to rule yesterday that the first five suspects arrested in connection with the al-Qaeda-linked Madrid train bombings that killed 202 people must stay in custody.
After Judge Juan del Olmo took testimony from the three Moroccans and two Indians overnight, police took them away in the early hours, judicial sources said.
A week after the commuter train blasts, another five suspects were picked up on Thursday as part of the investigation into what is suspected to be the first strike in the West by al-Qaeda or militants linked to it since Sept. 11, 2001.
At 202, the Madrid death toll has matched that of the 2002 Bali attack, which was blamed on Islamist militants. More than 1,750 people were also wounded in Spain.
Investigators and judges are pursuing possible links between the Madrid attack and the May 2003 suicide bombings in Casablanca, Morocco that killed 45 people, court sources said.
Spain's El Pais daily, citing sources in the inquiry, said yesterday that police had found a shard of mobile phone casing in a shop run by one of the detainees -- Moroccan Jamal Zougam -- that fit a broken phone found attached to an unexploded bomb.
Zougam, who ran a store that sold mobile telephones in central Madrid, was one of those appearing in court.
In London, police were investigating a "definitive link" between the Madrid attack and al-Qaeda supporters based in Britain, top police officer John Stevens told The Independent newspaper, comments that were confirmed by his office.
The paper, citing an intelligence source, also said Zougam was thought to have visited London for help on the attack.
The suspects arrested on Thursday were a Spaniard and four Arabs, sources in the inquiry said. An Algerian is also being held but sources do not think he is central to the inquiry.
The Spaniard was arrested in a northern city, sources said. El Pais and El Mundo newspapers said he was of Moroccan descent.
The blasts, the worst such attack in Europe since the 1988 Lockerbie plane bombing, had wide political repercussions and prompted a security shake-up across Europe and beyond.
EU interior and justice ministers were to hold emergency talks in Brussels yesterday to discuss new security measures.
Claims purportedly from al-Qaeda said the attack was in retaliation for the Spanish government's support for the US-led war on Iraq, which most Spaniards opposed.
Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's Socialists scored a surprise win in last Sunday's general election amid public accusations that the center-right government had tried to blame the Basque separatist group ETA to avoid any voter backlash over Iraq.
Zapatero instantly waded into controversy, vowing to stand by a pre-election pledge to withdraw Spain's troops from Iraq unless the UN takes over by mid-year, rebuffing calls from US President George W. Bush to stay the course.
"The UN must take political charge of the situation in Iraq ... new forces must participate," Zapatero told Spanish television late on Thursday.
Former UN weapons inspector Hans Blix also weighed in, saying the Iraq invasion had polarized the Middle East and worsened the threat from extremists.
The Spain bombings demonstrated "clearly an increase in the terrorism," he said. "It was ... al Qaeda or some related terrorist movement trying to tell states that they should not participate in the actions in Iraq."
Australians were downloading virtual private networks (VPNs) in droves, while one of the world’s largest porn distributors said it was blocking users from its platforms as the country yesterday rolled out sweeping online age restriction. Australia in December became the first country to impose a nationwide ban on teenagers using social media. A separate law now requires artificial intelligence (AI)-powered chatbot services to keep certain content — including pornography, extreme violence and self-harm and eating disorder material — from minors or face fines of up to A$49.5 million (US$34.6 million). The country also joined Britain, France and dozens of US states requiring
Hungarian authorities temporarily detained seven Ukrainian citizens and seized two armored cars carrying tens of millions of euros in cash across Hungary on suspicion of money laundering, officials said on Friday. The Ukrainians were released on Friday, following their detention on Thursday, but Hungarian officials held onto the cash, prompting Ukraine to accuse Hungary’s Russia-friendly government of illegally seizing the money. “We will not tolerate this state banditism,” Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said. The seven detained Ukrainians were employees of the Ukrainian state-owned Oschadbank, who were traveling in the two armored cars that were carrying the money between Austria and
Kosovar President Vjosa Osmani on Friday after dissolving the Kosovar parliament said a snap election should be held as soon as possible to avoid another prolonged political crisis in the Balkan country at a time of global turmoil. Osmani said it is important for Kosovo to wrap up the upcoming election process and form functional institutions for political stability as the war rages in the Middle East. “Precisely because the geopolitical situation is that complex, it is important to finish this electoral process which is coming up,” she said. “It is very hard now to imagine what will happen next.” Kosovo, which declared
MORE BANS: Australia last year required sites to remove accounts held by under-16s, with a few countries pushing for similar action at an EU level and India considering its own ban Indonesia on Friday said it would ban social media access for children under 16, citing threats from online pornography, cyberbullying, online fraud and Internet addiction. “Accounts belonging to children under 16 on high-risk platforms will start to be deactivated, beginning with YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, Bigo Live and Roblox,” Indonesian Minister of Communications and Digital Meutya Hafid said. “The government is stepping in so that parents no longer have to fight alone against the giants of the algorithm. Implementation will begin on March 28, 2026,” she said. The social media ban would be introduced in stages “until all platforms fulfill their
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