May 5, 2005 - 10:20 PM

Spain accuses 11 over Madrid train bombings

MADRID (Reuters) - A Spanish judge has formally accused 11 more people over the Madrid train bombings, including Moroccan-born Driss Chebli who is on trial on charges of helping the September 11 hijackers, a court official said on Thursday.

The step brings to 101 the number of people accused of a role in the bombings of Madrid commuter trains by radical Islamists that killed 191 people on March 11 last year.

Spain's High Court released the names of nine people who Judge Juan del Olmo has formally accused in connection with the attacks. The court official said two further people had been accused, but their names were not disclosed.

The court did not reveal the charges against the 11.

Chebli is one of 24 people currently on trial in Madrid in Europe's biggest trial of suspected Islamist militants. He is accused of 2,500 terrorist murders in connection with the September 11 attacks on U.S. cities in 2001.

Chebli and fellow defendant Imad Eddin Barakat Yarkas, the suspected leader of al Qaeda in Spain, are accused of helping members of the al Qaeda cell that carried out the U.S. attacks.

Prosecutors allege they helped prepare a meeting on July 16, 2001 in Tarragona, northeast Spain, at which prosecutors say the September 11 attacks may have been planned.

Another of those accused by the judge is Mohamed El Ouazzani, a Moroccan arrested in Madrid last December during an operation aimed at militants who police believe planned a truck bomb attack on the High Court.

Also named by del Olmo was Sanel Sjekirica, a Bosnian who flew back to Spain from Sweden in April last year to turn himself in after Spanish authorities listed him as wanted for suspected links to Islamic terrorism.

Police arrested Sjekirica on his arrival in Spain but released him three days later after he denied involvement in the Madrid attacks.

Spanish authorities blame the train attacks, which also injured 1,900 people, on Islamist militants working in the name of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network, who were retaliating against the presence of Spanish troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.