Madrid bombings suspect gets 10-year sentence

An Egyptian accused of involvement in the 2004 train bombings in the Spanish capital of Madrid was sentenced to 10 years in prison by an Italian court on Monday.

Rabei Osman Sayed Ahmed, also known as Mohamed the Egyptian, was the first person to be convicted for the March 11, 2004 bombings of four commuter trains which killed 191 people and injured more than 2,000.

The court in Milan convicted Ahmed, who was arrested in Milan three months after the attack, of connection with international terrorism, according to local media reports.

Another Egyptian, 23-year-old Yahya Mawad Mohamed Rajeh, was sentenced to five years in jail in the case.

Prosecutor Maurizio Romanelli had asked for Ahmed to be sentenced to 14 years, saying he was one of the masterminds of the Madrid attack with close ties to the terror cell responsible.

Romanelli told the Milan court that Ahmed, who was not in Spain during the attacks, had spent 18 months in Madrid helping to train the cell in the use of explosives.

Ahmed, who denied wrongdoing, said ahead of the verdict that "I am a good person... This is a political trial against Islam."

Ahmed will soon be extradited to Spain where he will stand trial again, with 28 other suspects, most of them Moroccans, accused of involvement in the Madrid attack.

The trial will begin in February with a verdict expected next October, the local reports said.

Source: Xinhua