Spain’s worldwide pursuit of the perpetrators of last year’s Madrid bombings seems to be proceeding nicely, this time with the help of Serbian authorities, per USA Today: (thanks to Twostellas)
Serbia on Sunday handed over to Spain a key suspect in last year’s Madrid train bombings which killed 191 people, Spanish police said.
Spanish police were accompanying the suspect Abdelmajid Bouchar back to Spain on a military plane due to arrive in the afternoon. The 22-year-old Moroccan was detained at Belgrade’s main train station in June with no documentation and claimed to be an Iraqi immigrant worker. Belgrade finished processing Spain’s extradition request last week.Spanish authorities say Bouchar was very close to ringleaders of the March 11, 2004 bombings of the Madrid commuter rail network which killed 191 people and wounded more than 1,500.
The attacks were claimed by militants who said they had acted on behalf of al-Qaeda in revenge for the presence of Spanish troops in Iraq.
Prosecutors at the National Court, which is leading the investigation, said Bouchar may have had a “decisive role” in the attacks through his contacts with other suspects “” some killed in a collective suicide and some still on the run.