Date set for Madrid terror trial

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The trial of 29 suspects - mostly Moroccans - implicated in the March 2004 Madrid train bombings will open on 15 February, Spanish officials say.

The rush-hour attacks on commuter trains killed 191 people. Seven of the suspects will face charges of murder and belonging to a terrorist group.

The others face charges including collaboration with a terrorist group and handling explosives.

Some 1,900 people were injured in the bombings. Many of them lost limbs.

Spanish media report that three members of the banned Basque separatist group Eta - Henri Parot, Gorka Vidal and Izkur Badillo - will be called as witnesses by the defence team.

Jamal Zougam, a Moroccan national who ran a mobile phone shop in Madrid, is one of the main suspects.

A Spaniard, Jose Emilio Suarez Trashorras, is accused of supplying some of the explosives that were left in backpacks on four trains crowded with early-morning commuters.

Seven top suspects - including the alleged mastermind, Tunisian Serhane ben Abdelmajid Fakhet - died in an explosion at a flat in Madrid in April 2004 as police were closing in on them.