March 11th Trial.

international | crime and justice | other press

Thursday February 15, 2007 16:09

by iosaf

This morning the trial of 29 people accused of playing a part in the bombing of commuter trains in Madrid on the 11th of the 3rd month 2004 began.
-198 people died.
-6 of whom were terrorists and 192 completely innocent people of whom more than one quarter were migrants.
-The trains carried normal workers to their jobs and menial workers returning from cleaning work in offices.
-1,755 people were injured seriously 1,900 suffered some type of injury.

Dublin 12/3/04 the Spanish Government & embassies still denied the authorship of the worst terrorist atrocity in recent European history.

-Within 4 days the Spanish celebrated a general election and the government of the day under Jose Maria Aznar deliberately mis-informed the public and friendly governments of the EU till the morning of the 14th of March & the elections which they lost. This occured against the backdrop of a society completely divided, demonstrations, conspiracy theories, revenge murders of 2 citizens. Division which have not healed 4 years later.
- Within 6 months 30% of the population of the city of Madrid had sought psyhcological counselling for trauma and depression related to the event.
- Within one month the main suspects had blown themselves up in a house in the suburbs of Madrid.
Today the remaining suspects who have been brought to Madrid from a variety of other states face trial of charges of murder and attempted murder.

coverage & background in english are available here
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6363149.stm
http://www.eitb24.com/new/en/B24_34901/politics/MARCH-1...rial/
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/02/15/europe/EU-GEN...s.php
http://www.spiegel.de/international/0,1518,466555,00.html

the atrocity divided a democratic society in two. Those divisions never healed. Every step of the way to this trial has seen more division. the spokesperson of the victims of M11, trade union activist Pilar Majon whose son died that morning accused the initial tribunal of only "discussing themselves" and not the victims. She had to leave Madrid after continuing death threats.
http://www.indymedia.ie/article/67956

This article on wikipedia has been subject to as many neutrality debates as any on September 11.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madrid_bombings

The first suspect, thought to the "ideologue" was arrested in Italy in mid 2004. He has refused to enter a plea. This trial will most probably be non-conclusive. But it is worth noting that Spain is the only state which has brought cases for any of the Al Qaeda related atrocities in the West. If anything exceptionally noteworthy occurs - I'll update in the comments. Meanwhile as I wrote at the first tribunal "rest in peace now". http://www.indymedia.ie/article/67956 Simply because I was one of those few thousands who blockaded offices of the government & one of those even fewer who got hit on the head by someone who preferred conspiracy theories to the truth & still have a little white scar on my forehead for the trouble.