Madrid, Spain — An Egyptian accused of being a mastermind of the Madrid train bombings told a court Thursday he had no involvement in the deadly attack, despite wiretapped conversations in which he allegedly boasted he was the brains behind it.
The defendant, Rabei Osman, testified as the trial of 29 suspects opened. He is among three men accused of planning the bombings that tore through packed commuter trains March 11, 2004, killing 191 people and wounding more than 1,800 in Europe's worst Islamic terror attack.
Osman refused to answer any questions from prosecutors, then said he had nothing to do with the attack under questioning from his own attorney.
"I never had any relation to the events which occurred in Madrid," he said in Arabic through a translator, adding that he condemned the bombings "unconditionally and completely."
Osman was arrested in June 2004 in Italy on a warrant from Spanish authorities. Italian prosecutors have said they tapped phone conversations in which he told an associate in Italy, "I'm the thread to Madrid, it's my work."
On the stand Thursday, Osman denied being a member of al-Qaida or any other Islamic extremist group, and said he knew other alleged members of the Madrid bombing cell only as acquaintances at a mosque in the Spanish capital.
The trial has ignited painful memories of what Spaniards consider the nation's most traumatic event since the 1930s civil war. Images of body bags and twisted train cars were replayed throughout the day on Spanish TV, a grim reminder of the devastation.
Some 100 experts and 600 witnesses are likely to be called during the trial, among them people whose lives were shattered by the blasts. Testimony is expected to last more than five months and a verdict is expected in late October.
"I hope justice is rendered and that there is a worthy sentence," Pilar Manjon, president of an association of March 11 victims, said before the proceedings got under way. Her 20-year-old son was killed in the bombings.
Of the defendants, Manjon said: "I will look them right in the eye. They destroyed my life but they will not destroy me."
Seven lead defendants face possible jail terms of 30 years for each of the 191 killings and 18 years each for 1,820 attempted murders. However, under Spanish law, the maximum time anyone can serve for a terrorist conviction is 40 years. There is no death penalty in Spain.
Other defendants face lesser charges ranging from belonging to a terrorist organization to stealing explosives from a mine in northern Spain and passing them on to the bombers in exchange for money and drugs.
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