Moroccan Saed el Harrak, one of the 29 suspects, nine of whom are Spaniards, indicted in the March 11, 2004 rail bombings in Madrid, Spain , was released from police custody due to an “error in legal proceedings.” El Harrak will be permitted to travel within Madrid province where he lives, but he will remain under police surveillance, among other precautions to keep him from going underground or fleeing the country.
In a very controversial move, authorities were forced to release el Harrak on May 10, 2006 in accordance to Spanish law that dictates that suspects can only be held for two years in pre-trial custody. A request for another two-year extension of the detention can be extended by the National Court. While el Harrak’s was filed, Judge Juan del Olmo, the presiding judge for the March 2004 case, was on a prolonged medical leave, and the request was received but not addressed. El Pais contended that the release came as a result of “a lack of coordination between the judge and the prosecution.” Both Judge del Olmo and Prosecutor Olga Sanchez may face disciplinary measures for the oversight; the General Council of the Judiciary ordered a disciplinary probe on May 11, according to a Basque news station.
Prosecutor Olga Sanchez planned on reissuing the extension on May 12 to recapture el Harrak. If she has submitted this request, Judge Teresa Palacio, who is sitting in temporarily for Judge del Olmo, can decide on detaining el Harrak.
The release is likely to spark backlash against the Socialist government, which came into power on the heels of the attack, and the judiciary. The ruling conservatives were ousted in a well orchestrated and timed attack that brought to bear Spain’s involvement in Iraq , Spain’s perpetually problematic domestic terrorist group ETA that was initially?and erroneously?blamed for the attack, and popular discontent with the government. Now, two years on from the attacks, many of the other 29 will find the same fate if the Spanish judiciary does not act more responsibly and coherently in submitting and accepting detention extensions for the terrorists involved in the worst attack in Spain and arguably the second worst, behind 9/11 , in the West. If el Harrak is not brought back into custody, Madrid may begin to see protests and civil disobedience in protest over perceived incompetence in the judiciary. While vigilantism is relatively rare in Spain, el Harrak may find himself at the wrong end of a gun barrel from a number of enemies:
? Survivors of the March 2004 attacks,
? Friends or family of those killed in the attacks, or
? ETA members, whose organization was irreversibly damaged based on faulty assumptions of their involvement and whose organization may perceive a possible avenge opportunity by eliminating el Harrak. ETA has launched reprisal assassinations for government crackdowns against the group; it could stand to reason that this theory might curry favor lost in the aftermath of 3/11.
El Harrak is accused of collaborating with an unnamed terrorist organization?believed to be an al-Qaeda -inspired Spanish cell, possibly the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group (GICM, Group Profile)?and having links to various suspects, although he has not been charged with mass murder like some of his fellow suspects, according to CNN. He was detained on March 13, 2004 when he admitted to speaking to several attackers in the days leading up to March 11, according to Expatica. His phone number was then found on April 3, 2004 after a suicide in a Leganes apartment linked to the men who carried out the attack , and he admitted to knowing at least one of the seven killed in the apartment, according to Reuters. The nine Spaniards are charged with trafficking explosives to assist in carrying out an act of terrorism.
Regardless of the outcome from this technicality, the trial for the March 2004 bombing attack unlikely to start before the spring of 2007. And, when it does finally get under way, assuming el Harrak is still alive and in Spanish custody, he will face a 10 year sentence for his involvement in the attacks. Thus far, suspected mastermind Rabei Osman Sayed Ahmed is facing his trial in Milan, Italy for recruiting Islamic extremists, and he is likely to be extradited for trial in Spain as well.
