SPAIN/FILE: Victims and others involved in the March 11 train bombings speak ahead of verdict

Days before a Madrid court delivers the verdict on the 27 men accused of planning, carrying out or assisting in the bombing of four packed commuter trains on the morning of March 11 2004, protagonists of the tragedy that killed 191 and injured more than 1800 tell Reuters about their expectations. A Spanish court will announce verdicts and sentences on October 31 in the case of the men charged over the 2004 train bombings in Madrid, the deadliest attack linked to al Qaeda in Europe. The bombs exploded on four packed commuter trains killing 191 people. Around 1,800 others were injured by 10 bombs, which had been stuffed into sports bags and set off by mobile phones. Roughly five minutes after the first blast, duty officer of the Madrid Emergency Unit SAMUR, Ervigio Corral Torres, arrived at the shattered station. Despite Corral's experience in dealing with bombings by the Basque separatist group ETA, the dimension of the disaster called for co-ordination and the utmost professionalism. "It was really hard to pass alongside the injured and hold back the urge to help them - I had to be organizing, I went to Atocha to evaluate the scene. But survivors asked for help, most of them gesturing with their eyes as that was the only way they could. To react effectively I had to forget about the human dimension of the tragedy at that very moment. Only later, back home, with time, one realizes the horrific scale," Corral, named 'Hero of the Year' by Time magazine, told Reuters. Under Corral's leadership, 215 medics, technicians and ambulance workers plus close to 200 volunteers were credited with saving at least 400 lives. State prosecutors say the bombers acted on a call by Osama bin Laden to attack countries backing the U.S.-led war in Iraq, with help from local petty criminals who supplied dynamite stolen from mines in northern Spain. Shortly after the deadly blasts, a man appearing in a videotape claiming to be a military spokesman for Al Qaeda in Europe announced al Qaeda was behind the March 11 attack. Prosecutors have asked for sentences amounting to tens of thousands of years - although the maximum any individual can serve in Spain is 40 years. Other suspects were never brought to trial. Several escaped and seven blew themselves up in a suburban Madrid flat while surrounded by police on April 3, 2004. The high-security trial ended in July after more than four months of evidence. Twenty-seven men, mainly Arabs living in Spain but also several Spaniards, are accused of planning, carrying out or assisting in the near simultaneous bombings of the trains arriving in the city centre from working class suburbs on the morning of March 11, 2004. All deny any involvement. Eighteen of the suspects have spent the past four months sitting in a bullet-proof glass box in the Madrid court. The other 11 sat in open court. One of the Madrid bombings' alleged masterminds, Rabei Osman known as "Mohammed the Egyptian", told the court upon taking the stand for the first time that he condemned the attacks. His lawyer, Endika Zulueta, says that the media and society have already sentenced Osman and that the principle that one is presumed innocent until proven guilty is not being applied. Zulueta said he has a good relationship with his client and that he is naturally worried. "Knowing that on October 31st at 11am three people are going to decide whether you are going to spend the rest of your life in jail is not like waiting for some test results. He is experiencing the reasonable anxiety of someone well aware of the fact that his future is being decided; but he is peaceful at the same time because he has a clear conscience since he is innocent," he said. Zulueta guaranteed that they would consider any level of punishment unacceptable. "We will certainly appeal to the highest institutions any jail sentence, even the minimum penalty, as we understand that even the least punishment would be unjust. To us, and to anyone who has followed the hearings, it's obvious that my client was not involved in the train attacks or with the so-called Islamic militant network al Qaeda - no relation whatsoever," he said. The verdict will also affect thousands of survivors and relatives of those who lost their lives, many still plagued by medical and psychological problems. March 11 Victims Association psychologist Syra Balanzat has been a key support for many victims and relatives since the day the bombs ripped through the trains shattering so many lives. Balanzat said the verdict is a milestone in the healing process but that it will trigger different reactions. "For some of them it will bring closure - for others it will revive the attack. Many could experience what we in psychology call a 'secondary victimization' in response to a non-expected verdict. Many victims described the trial during the lasts group sessions as a symbol of their struggle to find the truth and as a means to express all the anger and the fury they still have inside," she said. Angeles Pedraza lost her 25-year-old daughter, Myriam, in the carnage. She sat on the small block of seats reserved for victims and relatives every day of the four-month-long trial. She said the verdicts handed down on October 31 will not be the end of the matter. "Maybe I'm scared because I do not really know what to expect, or what is it going to be. I'm also scared because I don't want people to think that the verdict, whatever its nature, is the end of this. I couldn´t see the case shelved after the 31st. I don't want it to be just another terrorist attack filed before knowing the whole truth about it - yes, maybe that is what I most fear," she said. Pedraza wants what she calls "the real ideologues and organizers" to face justice. She welcomes the media attention, anything that can keep the investigation alive after the sentence. "I would be failing Myriam if I don't pursue the truth", she said before describing her daughter. "She was full of life and optimism, she was a vibrant girl, a beautiful girl," Pedraza said. Pedraza who wrote "Myriam was one of them", a book about her daughter, has never visited the cylinder of glass brick that stands metres from the scene of attack at Atocha, as a memorial to victims. She does not like it, especially the black concrete tower-foot, which according to Pedraza is a permanent reminder of the mourning of friends and family. Sunshine hitting the column of 15,000 glass bricks focuses light into an empty, blue chamber below a busy highway, which the public can access via Atocha station. From below, visitors can peer skywards to read hundreds of messages of condolence in different languages wrapped around the inside of the cylinder. Those words of support, Pedraza said, do help.

ITN Source | October 29, 2007

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