Thirty people went on trial Monday for allegedly plotting to blow up a court that is the hub of Spain’s anti-terror investigations.
The 30 men, mostly Algerians, have been charged with membership of a terrorist organisation, conspiracy to commit a terrorist attack and forgery.
The alleged mastermind Abderrahmane Tahiri, alias Mohamed Achraf, was extradited from Switzerland in April 2005.
Spanish authorities suspect Tahiri planned to ram a truck loaded with 1,100 pounds of explosives into the National Court in downtown Madrid.
“This was an organised and structured terrorist group, uncovered in November 2003, with radical Salafist tendencies, which defended the jihad (holy war) and intended carrying it out in Spain through violent actions such as that planned against the National Court and the persons within,” according to the indictment.