Three Charged In Madrid Bombing

A key suspect wept and another shouted "I am innocent!" during questioning by a Spanish judge, who charged them and another Moroccan on Friday with mass killings in the Madrid terror attacks.

The development, which stops short of a formal indictment, marked the first time authorities have publicly accused the three of direct involvement in Spain's deadliest terrorist attack, which killed 202 people. The Moroccans had earlier been accused of tampering with cell phone equipment found on an unexploded bomb.

Suspicion has centered on Moroccan extremists said to be linked to Osama Bin Laden's al Qaeda network and on al Qaeda itself. In an unauthenticated videotape, a man claiming to speak on behalf of al Qaeda said the group carried out the attack in reprisal for Spain's backing of the U.S.-led war in Iraq.

Friday's closed-door sessions before National Court Judge Juan del Olmo were at times tumultuous, a court official said. She said key Moroccan suspect Jamal Zougam wept and another Moroccan, Mohamed Bekkali, arrived shouting: "I am innocent! I am innocent!"

The third Moroccan, Mohamed Chaoui, told the judge he had few contacts with Zougam, his half brother, whom he described as deeply religious.

The Moroccans were charged with 190 killings, 1,400 attempted killings, and membership in a terrorist group, the official said. Although 202 people died in the March 11 bombings, only 190 bodies have been identified so far.

Two Indian men, Vinay Kohly and Suresh Kumar, were charged with collaborating with a terrorist group and falsifying a sales document, the court official said without elaborating.

The five suspects, who have been in custody since March 13, were brought individually before del Olmo for the hearings, which began Thursday night and lasted until dawn Friday.

The three Moroccans said they were home in bed when the bombs went off and denied having anything to do with the attack.

The five suspects, who had been kept in a holding cell in a police station, were sent to Soto del Real jail on Madrid's northern outskirts early Friday.

Friday's charges mean they can be jailed for up to two years while investigators gather evidence to try to bring them to trial. After that, they can be held an additional two years, be indicted and put on trial, or be released if there is insufficient evidence to try then.

On Friday, del Olmo ordered them held incommunicado, barring contact with lawyers and family members.

The El Pais newspaper reported Friday that police searching the telephone services shop where Zougam and Bekkali worked found a piece of a cell phone used in a backpack bomb that failed to explode during the Madrid attacks. The cell phone, which apparently was set to connect to a detonator, was recovered and analyzed, the newspaper reported, citing police sources.

The death toll in the train attacks matches that of the October 2002 Bali, Indonesia, nightclub bombings, making them the deadliest terror strikes since the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States killed nearly 3,000 people.

Another five suspects were arrested Thursday, including Mohamed El Hadi Chedadi, the brother of Said Chedadi, an alleged al Qaeda operative arrested in 2001. Moroccan Communications Minister Nabil Benabdellah identified two others as Moroccans Farid Oulad Ali, a construction worker, and Abderrahim Zbakh, who was born in 1971 and received an undergraduate degree in chemistry in Tetouan, Morocco.

The three had lived in Spain since at least 1999, Benabdellah said.

Jean-Charles Brisard, a French private investigator, identified a fourth suspect as Moroccan Saad Houssaini, who was named in an investigation of al Qaeda operatives in Spain by Judge Baltasar Garzon.

The fifth suspect holds Spanish citizenship and was arrested in Asturias region in northern Spain, a heavy mining region, for investigation of robbery of explosives, police said.

Authorities believe that suspect may have had a direct role in the bombings and in May 2003 suicide attacks that killed 33 people and 12 bombers in Casablanca, Morocco, said radio station Cadena Ser.

Ten suspects are in now custody for the Madrid bombings. An Algerian who was questioned this week was released on Friday, court officials said.

Intelligence officials from Italy, Britain, Germany, France and Spain were to meet in Madrid on Monday to review results of the investigation, Italian Interior Minister Giuseppe Pisanu told reporters.

Public anger over the Popular Party government's handling of the bombings contributed to its loss in Sunday's elections. Critics accused it of making Spain a target by backing the U.S.-led war in Iraq.

Prime Minister-designate Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, whose Socialists won the elections Sunday, reiterated campaign pledges to withdraw his country's 1,300 troops from Iraq unless the United Nations takes charge.

"We're seeing every day there are more deaths in the occupation phase than the war phase. Therefore, Spanish troops are going to return to Spain," he said.

U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said during a TV interview that if Zapatero pulls out Spain's troops, "he'll appear to be appeasing terrorists and I think that would be really unfortunate."

By Maria Jesus Prades