A Spanish judge launched a new investigation on Thursday into the 2004 Madrid train bombings focusing on seven suspects he said helped suspected bombers flee.
National Court Judge Eloy Velasco said there was evidence the seven provided money, cover and information to help four men suspected of carrying out the March 11, 2004, bombings to evade justice.
The morning rush hour attack on commuter trains headed for the capital’s main southern station killed 191 people and injured about 1,800.
Velasco named the seven suspects in a statement on Thursday as Zohair Khadiri, Djilali Boussiri, Taha Seghrouchni, Nassreddine Ben Laidne Amri, Hammad Lahsini, Abdelkrim Lebchina and Abdelaziz El Merabit.
The judge said the seven knew that Mohamed Afalah, Daoud Ouhmane, Said Berraj and Otman El Mouib had participated in the bombings but did nothing to turn them in to the police.
“Instead, they cooperated with them, providing false documents and even helped them to move to several places in Spain,” Velasco said.
The statement said the men also helped the alleged ringleaders, seven of whom — including the ideological mastermind, Tunisian Serhan Ben Abdelmajid Fakhet — blew themselves up three weeks after the attacks as police closed in on their apartment hide-out in the Madrid suburb of Leganes.
Velasco said that despite the seven men’s efforts, two of the suspects who fled after the bombings — Mohamed Belhadj and Abdelilah Hriz — were detained in Morocco.
Responsibility for the attacks, perpetrated with 10 bombs hidden in backpacks, was claimed by Muslim militants who said they were avenging the presence of Spanish peacekeepers in Iraq and Afghanistan.
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