Twenty-one of the 28 people charged in connection with the 11 March 2004 Madrid train bombings were originally found guilty of involvement, but a ruling by Spain's Supreme Court on 17 July 2008 acquitted four of those men, while convicting one Spaniard who had originally been cleared of supplying explosives to the bombers. The ruling brought the total number of convictions over the bombings to 18. Ringleaders Jamal Zougam, Otman el Ghanoui and Jose Emilio Suarez Trashorras were given multiple life sentences. JAMAL ZOUGAM Zougam, a Moroccan national who ran a mobile phone shop in Madrid, was found guilty of 191 counts of murder, and sentenced to 30 years for each one. He was also sentenced to 20 years each for 1,856 counts of attempted murders. Finally, he was sentenced to 12 years in prison for belonging to a terrorist organisation. Zougam was arrested two days after the attacks. He was said to have been under Spanish police surveillance since the 2003 bombings in Casablanca that killed 45 people. Spain's El Pais newspaper said three people saw him leaving a rucksack on one of the bombed trains. OTMAN EL GHANOUI Ghanoui, born in Morocco, was found guilty of 191 murders and 1,856 attempted murders, for which he was sentenced to 30 years each and 20 years each respectively. He was also sentenced to 15 years each on four counts of "terrorist carnage", and 12 years for belonging to a terrorist group. JOSE EMILIO SUAREZ TRASHORRAS A former miner, the Spaniard was found guilty of supplying some of the explosives that were used in the attacks. He was sentenced to 25 years each for 192 deaths - the 191 who died in the bombings, and policeman Francisco Javier Torronteras, who died when seven key suspects committed suicide during a police raid. He was detained on 18 March, 2004. ABDELMAJID BOUCHAR
The Moroccan, currently detained in Spain, was sentenced to 18 years in prison. He was arrested at the main railway station in the Serbian capital, Belgrade, in June 2005. He had no documentation and said he was an Iraqi immigrant worker. Bouchar is alleged to have fled an apartment in Leganes, near Madrid, where the suspected train bombers hid after the attacks. He was accused of 191 counts of murder and 1,856 counts of attempted murder. BASEL GHALYOUN Ghalyoun was originally sentenced to 12 years in prison, but his conviction was overturned by Spain's Supreme Court on 17 July, 2008. A Syrian national born in 1980, he owned a Madrid apartment where members of an Islamist cell allegedly used to meet. Ghalyoun is said to have visited mosques in Madrid frequently while allegedly recruiting members of the cell. Two passengers from the bombed train bound for Madrid's Atocha station initially said they recognised him but later retracted, though prosecutors suggested this was because he had cut his hair and gained weight. He was accused of 191 murders and 1,755 attempted murders. RABEI OSMAN SAYED AHMED Also known as "Mohamed The Egyptian", Sayed was found not guilty of having played a key role in bombings. Prosecutors had argued that he played a key role in organising the attacks. He was arrested in Milan, Italy, in a joint anti-terror operation between Italy, Spain, France and Belgium on 8 June 2004. He was extradited to Spain in December 2004, then was returned to Italy in 2005 to face trial on separate terrorism charges. There he was convicted of having links to terror cells in Europe and Iraq, and sentenced to 10 years in prison, and then sent back to Spain for the Madrid trial. He was acquitted in October 2007, and on 17 July 2008 that acquittal was upheld by the Supreme Court on the basis that Sayed had already been convicted in Italy and could not be charged with the same offence twice. YOUSSEF BELHADJ Belhadj was found guilty of belonging to a terrorist group and sentenced to 12 years in prison. A Moroccan, he was arrested on 1 February, 2005 in Belgium and later extradited to Spain. He was charged with 191 murders and 1,755 attempted murders. The authorities believe he is Aby Dujanah, al-Qaeda's purported spokesman who claimed responsibility for the Madrid attacks on a videotape days after the attacks. He is thought to have links to a group that bombed Casablanca. HASAN EL HASKI Haski, a suspected leading member of the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group, was sentenced to 15 years for belonging to a terrorist group. A Moroccan, he was detained in the Canary Islands on 11 December, 2004. He had been charged with 191 murders and 1,755 attempted murders. THE OTHER DEFENDANTS Fouad el Morabit Amghar, born 1973, Morocco: Sentenced to 12 years Mouhannad Almallah "Dabas", born 1964, Syria: Originally sentenced to 12 years; conviction overturned by Spain's Supreme Court on 17 July, 2008 Mohamed Larbi Ben Sellam, born 1977, Morocco: Sentenced to 12 years Rafa Zouhier, born 1979, Morocco: Sentenced to 10 years Antonio Toro, born 1977, Spain: Originally found not guilty, but sentenced to four years for trafficking explosives by Spain's Supreme Court in its 17 July 2008 ruling Carmen Toro, born 1981, Spain: Not guilty Javier Gonzalez Diaz, born 1952, Spain: Not guilty Emiliano Llano Alvarez, born 1960, Spain: Not guilty Raul Gonzalez Pelaez, born 1979, Spain: Not guilty; cleared of trafficking explosives by Spain's Supreme Court in its 17 July 2008 ruling Sergio Alvarez Sanchez, born 1979, Spain: Sentenced to three years Ivan Granados Pena, born 1979, Spain: Not guilty Antonio Ivan Reis, born 1982, Spain: Sentenced to three years Hamid Ahmidan, born 1977, Morocco: Sentenced to 23 years Abdelilah el Fadoual el Akil, born 1969, Morocco: Originally sentenced to nine years; conviction overturned by Spain's Supreme Court on 17 July, 2008 Mohamed Bouharrat, born 1979, Morocco: Sentenced to 12 years Rachid Aglif, born 1979, Morocco: Sentenced to 18 years Saed el Harrak, born 1973, Morocco: Sentenced to 12 years Mahmoud Slimane Aoun, born 1960, Lebanon: Sentenced to three years Nasreddine Bousbaa, born 1969, Algeria: Sentenced to three years Mohamed Moussaten, born 1984, Morocco: Not guilty
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