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Madrid bombing trial on the go

On Thursday, the trial of 29 people involved in the March 11th, 2004, bombing which killed 191 persons, opened in Spain. The violent attack, the deadliest in Europe ever, took place with the near simultaneous explosion of 10 bombs in 4 different urban train stations in Madrid, injuring 1,800 people. It isn`t merely the shear number of the injured or the 192 people killed, including the police officer killed in a raid on the suspects, which is record braking, in what has been dubbed in Spain as a "super trial."

The defendants are faced with penalties totaling 38,654 year incarceration. 650 witnesses will be heard and 93,236 pages of depositions have been handed. An army of attorneys will take part in the trial and 25 foreign diplomats will be present in the court during hearings. The defendants are 20 Muslim extremists and petty-criminals, mostly from Morocco and other North African nations, and nine Spanish nationals, who allegedly sold them the explosives, which they have stolen from a mine in Northern Spain.

The police claim it has identified nearly all the culprits who planted the backpack and briefcase bombs, before jumping off the trains. Only two of them appeared at court on Thursday, and they are both denying the charges held against them. 7 suspects blew themselves up three weeks after the bombings took place, when the police surrounded the building complex, in which they were hiding. Four others were not found.