ID:82641
    Date:2006-10-20 12:58:00
    Origin:06MADRID2657
    Source:Embassy Madrid
    Classification:CONFIDENTIAL
    Dunno:06MADRID1799 06MADRID1914 06MADRID2374
    Destination:VZCZCXRO5703
OO RUEHAG RUEHROV
DE RUEHMD #2657/01 2931258
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
O 201258Z OCT 06
FM AMEMBASSY MADRID
TO RUEAWJA/DEPT OF JUSTICE WASHDC IMMEDIATE
RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 1094
INFO RUCNMEM/EU MEMBER STATES COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUEHLA/AMCONSUL BARCELONA PRIORITY 2166
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC PRIORITY
    C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 MADRID 002657 
SIPDIS 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/19/2016 
TAGS: PHUM, PREL, PTER, SP 
SUBJECT: SPAIN: UPDATE ON KEY TERRORISM-RELATED CASES 
 
REF: A. MADRID 1914 
     B. MADRID 1799 
     C. MADRID 2374 
 
MADRID 00002657  001.2 OF 003 
 
Classified By: A/DCM Kathleen Fitzpatrick for Reasons 1.4 (B) and (D) 
 
1. (C)
Summary:  In advance of the October 24 visit to Madrid 
of US Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez, Post presents a 
brief update on several of the most important pending or 
recently completed terrorism or criminal cases in the Spanish 
judicial system.  Spain has made great strides in disrupting 
terrorist cells and frustrating would-be terrorist plots and 
we remain pleased with Spain's counter-terrorism cooperation. 
 However, its national prosecutors continue to have 
difficulty building cases that can stand up in the courts and 
recent Spanish Supreme and national court decisions freeing 
alleged Al-Qaeda suspects are an important factor to consider 
as we pursue improved judicial cooperation with Spain.  End 
Summary. 
 
------------------------------- 
High-profile Al-Qaeda Suspects 
------------------------------- 
 
2. (SBU)
Spain's National Court on October 11 acquitted 
Lahcen Ikassrien after finding insufficient evidence that he 
was a member of either Al-Qaeda or of the Abu Dahdah terror 
cell in Spain, or that he fought alongside the Taliban in 
Afghanistan.  Ikassrien is a Moroccan national and former 
Guantanamo detainee transferred to Spanish custody in July 
2005.  The court refused to admit any prosecution evidence 
that was obtained during his detention in Guantanamo or any 
information gleaned from intercepted phone calls in Spain. 
Post advised in Reftel A that this might occur, due to the 
unfortunate similarities the Ikassrien case had with that of 
accused terrorist Hamed Abderrahaman Ahmed, known in the 
media as the "Spanish Taliban."  As reported in Reftel A, the 
Spanish Supreme Court announced on July 24 that it had 
annulled the six-year prison sentence handed down to 
Abderrahaman in September 2005 by Spain's national court. 
The court found that Spanish prosecutors could not use any 
evidence collected during their interrogation of Abderrahaman 
while he was being held at Guantanamo under conditions the 
court termed, "impossible to explain, much less justify." 
The Spanish prosecutor in the Ikassrien case had sought an 
eight-year jail sentence for the accused and tried 
unsuccessfully to build a case against Ikassrien that 
excluded evidence obtained in Guantanamo, noting publicly 
that Spanish authorities had obtained more than enough 
evidence of Ikassrien's membership in the Abu Dahdah terror 
cell prior to his stay in Guantanamo.  It is unclear whether 
Ikassrien can be tried on any other terror-related charges. 
 
3. (SBU)
In a separate case, Spanish authorities on October 
3 released Taysir Alony, who in September 2005 was sentenced 
to seven years in prison for membership in Al-Qaeda, for 
humanitarian reasons stemming from a serious heart problem. 
The Spanish Ministry of Interior is forcing Alony to wear a 
locator bracelet and monitoring his activities. 
 
------------------------ 
CIA Flights and Prisons 
------------------------ 
 
4. (SBU)
Despite President's Bush recent announcement that 
there are no longer any terrorist suspects held in "secret 
prisons," this issue continues to dominate press headlines in 
Spain.  On the front page of its October 15 edition, leading 
Spanish daily El Pais reported that the founder of Al-Qaeda 
in Spain has been in a "secret CIA prison" for a year. 
Sensational headlines in the Spanish press continue to claim 
that Syrian-born Spanish national named Mustafa Setmarian was 
turned over to the US by Pakistan authorities at the end of 
2005.  The press reporting claims that Setmarian sowed the 
seeds of Jihad in Spain during the 1980s, but that the 
Spanish national court cannot request his extradition because 
he has not been officially arrested. 
 
5. (SBU)
Along similar lines, and as we reported in REFTELS 
B and C, the CIA flights inquiry remains a hot discussion 
topic in Spain.  On October 9, German national Khaled 
al-Masri testified for three hours in a Spanish national 
court and claimed that he was kidnapped and tortured by CIA 
officers during five months in 2004.  He said he was taken 
from Macedonia to Kabul on a flight that he believed could 
have stopped in Palma de Mallorca.  Al-Masri said he would 
not be able to identify any members of the crew on board the 
flight from Macedonia, but he would be able to recognize some 
of those who interrogated him in Kabul.  As noted in Reftel 
C, post continues to be concerned that Judge Moreno, the 
 
MADRID 00002657  002.2 OF 003 
 
Spanish judge involved in this case, as part of Spain's 
highly independent judiciary, may determine that Spanish law 
allows him to claim "universal jurisdiction" on cases 
involving alleged torture and abuse.  Such a determination 
may provide him the authority to adjudicate events that 
transpired in a third country if it is proven that related 
events occurred in Spain.  Spanish government officials, 
including President Zapatero, continue to maintain their firm 
public stance that the flights did not violate any Spanish 
laws.  However, Foreign Minister Moratinos expressed concern 
in front of the EU Parliament last month that, "our territory 
could have been used not to commit any offense, but as a 
stop-over to commit them in other countries."  Moratinos has 
also urged the European Union to more vigorously investigate 
the presence of secret CIA prisons in other European 
countries.  Spanish press reports that Judge Moreno in the 
near future will allow the national prosecutor to call other 
witnesses, including the airport authorities of Palma de 
Mallorca and the aircraft handling services. 
 
---------------------- 
Madrid Train Bombings 
---------------------- 
 
6. (C)
Despite the passage of more than two and a half years 
since the Madrid train bombings occurred on March 11, 2004, 
and the near universal acceptance by the Spanish public and 
terrorism experts that they were perpetrated by Al-Qaeda 
sympathizers with the goal to punish Spain for its 
participation in the Iraq War, a segment of the opposition 
Popular Party (PP) and the newspaper El Mundo continue to 
allege a Socialist party conspiracy and cover up and claim 
that the Basque terrorist group ETA had some link with the 
March 11 attacks.  The highly-charged political clash over 
the Madrid bombing investigation has heightened the climate 
of bad blood between the opposition PP and the ruling 
Socialist government and has greatly hindered the pace of the 
government's prosecution of the attacks.  Spain is currently 
holding 29 individuals for their alleged connection to the 
bombings and prosecutors plan to charge these individuals 
with 191 counts of murder and 1,755 counts of attempted 
murder.  The Spanish National Court has recently rejected 
various appeals from the accused and said that the trials, 
scheduled to begin in February 2007, may proceed.  The 
National court in late September asked the Spanish Ministry 
of Justice to send an extradition request to Italy to bring 
Rabei Osman el-Sayed, known as "Muhammad the Egyptian," 
temporarily to Spain to face trial in connection with the 
Madrid bombings. 
 
---------------------- 
The Detergent Command 
---------------------- 
 
7. (SBU)
In a separate case pending before Spanish courts, 
the national prosecutor will seek a total of 142 years in 
prison for six Islamists arrested in January 2003 in 
Barcelona and Girona.  These individuals are known in the 
press as "The Detergent Command," due to their possession of 
large quantities of detergents that police believe were to 
serve as ingredients for explosive devices.  According to the 
prosecutor, these individuals were preparing a terrorist 
attack against a military base in the south of Spain, which 
may have been the base at Rota that the US shares with the 
Spanish navy and air force.  The prosecutor will seek 32 
years for Muhammad Tahraoui, alleged leader of the Detergent 
Command, and 22 years each for his alleged accomplices, 
Muhammad Amine BenaMoura, Ali Kaouka, Ismail Boudjelthia, 
Muhammad Nebbar and Sohuil Kouka. 
 
--------------- 
The Couso Case 
--------------- 
 
8. (SBU)
Although not related to terrorism, the case of Jose 
Couso--the Spanish television cameraman killed in Baghdad in 
April 2003 during a firefight between US forces and Saddam's 
army--may return to national prominence after a British 
inquest earlier this month implicated US soldiers in the 
death of a British journalist in southern Iraq in March 2003. 
 Couso's death sparked protests in a country that was 
vehemently against the Iraq invasion and friends and 
relatives of Couso have tried for years to bring a wrongful 
death case against the US soldiers of the Third Infantry 
Division involved in the firefight.  The Spanish national 
court in March 2006 claimed it had no jurisdiction and 
refused to hear the case, but Couso supporters appealed to 
the Spanish Supreme Court the following month and we are 
still awaiting the high court's ruling.  Although we have yet 
to see any Spanish reaction to the findings of the British 
 
MADRID 00002657  003.2 OF 003 
 
 inquest, there is a possibility that Couso's family and their 
supporters will increase pressure on the Spanish Supreme 
Court to allow charges to be brought against the US soldiers. 
 
9. (C)
Comment: Spain is a serious and committed partner in 
our global war on terror and we remain pleased with the 
efforts of Spanish law enforcement, intelligence and judicial 
organizations to combat the Islamic extremist threat. 
However, Spanish police, prosecutors, and magistrates 
building legal cases against disparate and amorphous terror 
cells are struggling to develop evidence sufficient enough to 
meet the high threshold set by the Spanish courts.  Spain has 
a highly independent judiciary that carefully guards this 
independence (a major achievement of the post-Franco era), 
and this is an important factor to consider as we pursue 
increased judicial cooperation with Spain in terrorism cases. 
 Nonetheless, some of the recent Supreme and national court 
decisions can clearly be seen as a criticism of US detainee 
policies in Guantanamo that are highly unpopular among the 
Spanish.  Embassy Madrid looks forward to using next week's 
visit of Attorney General Gonzalez and his delegation to 
engage Spanish government officials on a range of important 
legal and judicial issues to encourage them to take an even 
more active role in the fight against global terrorism. 
AGUIRRE