Madrid bombings trial concludes

Rabei Osman's lawyer said the case had not been proved

The trial of 28 people accused of organising the 2004 Madrid bombings has ended with final statements from defence lawyers.

The defendants, alleged to be linked to al-Qaeda, are accused of killing 191 people and wounding 1,841, in attacks on four commuter trains.

Some could face up to 40 years in jail if found guilty when verdicts are handed down in October.

All pleaded not guilty. The defence says evidence has been fabricated.

A lawyer for Rabei Osman, an Egyptian alleged to be one of the masterminds, said the police knew that information suggesting his client was an explosives expert, supported Islamic Jihad and had been in Afghanistan, was false.

"Based on nothing, and with astonishing frivolousness, they ask for a jail term of 40,000 years," said Endika Zulueta in his closing statement.

The main evidence against Mr Osman includes recordings of wiretapped telephone conversation in which a male voice can be heard claiming that the idea for the bombings is his.

Mr Osman says the voice on the recording is not his.

"Worst attack"

The lawyer of a man accused of planting some of the bombs, Jamal Zougam, said there were serious flaws in the evidence presented against his client.

Jamel Zougam's mother said he was in bed when the bombs went off

His lawyer, Jose Luis Abascal, said there were "evident contradictions" in the testimony of a protected witness, who claimed to have seen Mr Zougam on one of the trains targeted.

Mr Zougam's mother testified in court that her son, identified by several witnesses, was asleep at home when the 10 bombs exploded.

The bomb attacks took place three days before parliamentary elections in Spain, and could have contributed to the defeat of the centre-right Popular Party.

Chief prosecutor Javier Saragoza said during the trial that "the worst attack in Spain's history was the work of a cell linked to jihad and al-Qaeda, the terrorist organisation which is behind the majority of attacks carried out in the world".

The eight prime suspects could be sentenced to a theoretical maximum of 39,000 years in jail each, if found guilty by the panel of judges.

Three of the eight are accused of planning the attacks, two are alleged to have placed bombs on board the trains, two are described as "necessary co-operators," and one, a Spaniard, is accused of supplying the explosives.

The other defendants are charged with lesser offences, such as membership of or collaboration with a terrorist group.