RABAT, 21 March 2004 — Moroccan Islamist leaders yesterday dismissed as “alien products” compatriots accused of masterminding the Madrid train bombings. Spanish police, following indications of an Al-Qaeda link in the March 11 attacks on commuter trains that killed 202, have rounded up six Moroccans among 10 suspects.
“Islamists in Morocco don’t believe in violence, those Moroccans suspected in the Madrid bombings ... are alien products,” said Fathallah Arsalane, spokesman for the North African kingdom’s largest Islamist group, Al-Adl Wal-Ihsane.
The Moroccan government has made no official comment on the Madrid arrests apart from providing the identities of those detained so far. The latest three Moroccan suspects were accused in a Spanish court on Friday of 190 murders, but denied any links to Al-Qaeda and said they were asleep at the time of the attacks. One of the Moroccans seen as a main suspect — Jamal Zougam — wept in court before returning to pray in his cell, court sources said. Another, Mohamed Bekkali, shouted he was innocent.
Moroccan officials, backed by some security experts, have cautioned against drawing a direct link between the Madrid bombings and attacks in Casablanca last year that killed 45 people, including 12 suicide bombers.
A government spokesman stressed on Friday that the latest three Moroccan suspects had lived in Spain for years. Zougam, 30, has been living there since he was 10 and only came back to his native town of Tangiers for holidays.
