Five charged in Spain bombings
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MADRID, Spain (CNN) -- A Spanish court has charged five suspects arrested in connection with the bombings of Madrid commuter trains and remanded them into custody after an all-night court session.
National Court Judge Juan del Olmo charged three Moroccan suspects with 190 murders and 1,400 attempted murders and with belonging to a terrorist group, a court official said.
They were also charged with four counts of causing terror damage to the trains hit in the March 11 bombings and one count of a stolen vehicle.
Two Indian suspects were charged with collaborating with a terrorist organization, as well as fraud and forging a document.
All five suspects denied the charges.
They were arrested Saturday in connection with the bombings of the Madrid commuter trains, which killed 202 people. Only 190 bodies have been identified.
The judge held the all-night session to comply with Spain's anti-terrorism law, which stipulates suspects cannot be held for more than five days without charges.
The Moroccans were identified as Jamal Zougam, his brother Mohamed Choui and Mohamed Bekali. The Indians were identified as Vinay Kholy and Uresh Kumar.
Zougam, 30, was arrested after he was linked to a cell phone found with one of the unexploded bombs from the train attacks.
Zougam has links to two brothers who have been charged in connection with the May 2003 suicide attacks in Casablanca, Morocco, that killed nearly three dozen people.
He was the last suspect to testify in the marathon court session, the court official said.
Zougam never looked up at the judge, crying at the end of his statement, the official said.
Zougam admitted he knew Imad Eddin Barakat Yarkas, who prosecutors have described as al Qaeda's ringleader in Spain, the official said.
Barakat Yarkas was imprisoned shortly after the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington.
He has denied involvement in last week's bombings and was questioned by another judge in court Thursday.
Barakat Yarkas' lawyer, Jacobo Tejileo, said his client wanted to condemn all terrorist attacks and was willing to cooperate with Spanish investigators probing the train attacks.
Tejileo said his client was shown several photographs and was able to identify Zougam, who he said ran a vegetable stand and phone shop. He also identified four people suspected in the Casablanca bombings.
The Associated Press quoted Tejielo as saying Barakat Yarkas knew Zougam only superficially and "was not his friend."
But a probe of al Qaeda by Judge Balthasar Garzon shows Zougam and Barakat Yarkas knew each other since at least 2001 and that Zougam telephoned Yarkas in a call monitored on September 5, 2001, AP reported.
Zougam also is suspected of links to Said Chedadi, another alleged al Qaeda operative arrested with Barakat Yarkas in 2001, AP said.
Chedadi's phone number was found in the search of Zougam's home, AP reported.
On Thursday, Spanish authorities arrested five more people in connection with the bombings -- including three who were taken into custody at Alcala de Henares, a Madrid suburb on the rail line that was bombed. (Full story)
On Friday, authorities released Ali Amrous, an Algerian man held in connection with the Madrid terror attacks and accused of being an al Qaeda member, according to National Court sources.
He was arraigned on Wednesday and the court had 48 hours to decide whether to remand him into custody.
Basque police said Amrous was involved in a disturbance in January in San Sebastian. At that time he told police, "There are going to be some deaths on the Castellana, on the Plaza Castilla and in Atocha."
Atocha is the train station hardest hit in the Madrid bombings.
With his release, 10 suspects connected to the deadly train bombings are in custody.
Meanwhile, Spain's conservative government -- stung by U.S. criticism of its handling of the explosions -- said it would declassify government documents from last Thursday showing what the government knew when it blamed the Basque separatist group ETA for the attacks.
Interior Minister Angel Acebes announced that the documents would be declassified after comments Wednesday by Deputy U.S. Secretary of State Richard Armitage.
Armitage said the government of Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar erred when it "didn't get what information that did exist out to the public."
Aznar's government was defeated in last Sunday's elections following the bombings.
Leading Spanish politicians have fended off U.S. charges that Spain is appeasing terrorists by planning to pull troops out of Iraq in the wake of the Madrid bombings.
Spain's planned withdrawal is "not a result of improvisation and even less a consequence" of the March 11 attack, said Jesus Caldera, a Socialist former parliamentary spokesman.
A Spanish withdrawal could help tip the balance toward "full respect for international law" and lead to the United Nations taking control in Iraq, said Caldera, who is expected to get a post in Prime Minister-elect Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's government.
Zapatero, the upset winner in elections Sunday, campaigned on pledges to pull Spain's 1,300 troops out by June 30 unless the United Nations takes charge in Iraq. (Full story)
CNN Madrid Bureau Chief Al Goodman contributed to this report
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Associated Press contributed to this report.
