BERLIN, Feb. 15 (UPI) -- With many questions still unanswered amid a surge of political bickering, the trial over Europe's worst terror attack to date started Thursday in Madrid, Spain.
Rita Betancourt and her husband Louis Alberto for the past three years haven't moved a piece in their son's room, although they know that he will never again set a foot in it. Jose Louis died in the morning hours of March 11, 2004, on the day when Islamist terrorism for the first time reared its ugly head in Europe.
Shortly after 7.30 a.m., a group of terrorists believed to be inspired by al-Qaida ignited ten bombs on four different commuter trains in Spain's capital Madrid. Filled with nails and screws to worsen the effects of the explosion, the bombs were left on the trains in bags or backpacks; they were ignited almost simultaneously via cell phone signals.
The bombings killed 191 people, injured over 1,800, and left a nation in shock and disarray. Several of the injured victims lost a leg or an arm, and many to this day need psychological counseling to cope with what they experienced.
Although the 29 defendants face sentences totaling up to more than 38,000 years, the longest jail term anyone can actually serve under Spanish law is 40 years. Only seven of the 29 them will face the maximum sentence for charges of belonging to a terrorist organization and mass murder.
Another seven key plotters of the attacks will not appear in court at all: They blew themselves up with leftover explosives when police surrounded their apartment in Madrid a month after the bombings. Four others escaped, but one of them is believed to have died as a suicide bomber in Iraq.
Nevertheless, the entire country has longed for this trial to start. The courtroom in a maximum-security building on Madrid's outskirts, secured by 300 police and air surveillance, will hear testimony from 650 witnesses; see more than 90,000 pages of written evidence, and handle an army of journalists, lawyers and diplomats. No wonder a Spanish magazine recently called it "the trial of the century."
Apart from reminding the country of the pain it has suffered that day, the trial has reopened old divisions between Spain's two main political parties: The attacks had led to the ousting of the former conservative government under former Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, and installed that of Socialist Prime Minister Jose Louis Zapatero.
Aznar for days had blamed Basque separatist organization ETA for the bombings, a theory critics say was artificially upheld for election purposes -- the majority of the public believed the attacks were a punishment for Aznar's support of the U.S.-led war in Iraq. Three days after the bombings, Aznar's conservatives were voted out of office, and Zapatero quickly withdrew Spain's troops from Iraq.
It remains to be seen if the trial can shed light onto the darkness that still surrounds the bombings.
Conspiracy-theory advocates have accused Zapatero's government, the police and prosecutors of investigating with the goal to cover up any traces of ETA involvement.
"There are serious signs that evidence has been tampered with in order to point the investigation towards the Islamists," El Mundo, one of Spain's most prominent newspapers, said Sunday.
Observers say mutual blaming could become more frequent as the trial, which is expected to last until October, continues.
Most of the relatives of the victims also want to know the truth, at least to have some peace of mind what happened to their beloved ones, and why.
A key suspect, Rabei Osman el Sayed, also called "Mohammed the Egyptian" on Thursday was summoned for questioning, but he refused to speak in the courtroom.
"I do not recognize any accusation and with all due respect to Mr. President (of the court) and the judges, I will not reply any questions, not even from my defence," he said.
El Sayed has been trained as a terrorist in Afghanistan and over the phone has claimed that he was the mastermind behind the attacks. While his fate seems sealed, several of the 29 suspects may not receive maximum punishments because of thin evidence.
For the likes of Rita Betancourt, who have lost loved ones, no verdict is harsh enough for the perpetrators of the attacks given her constant suffering.
"They have taken our son," she told German public broadcaster ZDF. "We suffer from a livelong punishment."
