32 Indicted in Plot to Blow Up Spain’s National Court

A Spanish Judge, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, has indicted 32 suspected Islamic militants for conspiring to drive a truck carrying 1,100lbs of explosives into the National Court in Madrid. The judge said that the attack could have killed more than 900 people, although he he did not release a date for the planned attack and no explosives have ever been found. All but three of the suspects are already in jail, including the alleged mastermind, Mohamed Achraf, who was extradited to Spain from Switzerland in April, 2005.

The investigation into the conspiracy was headed by Baltasar Garzon, a high-profile — and sometimes controversial — judge best known for unsuccessfully trying to extradite Pinochet from London to Spain to stand trial for the murder of Spanish citizens in Chile during the 1970s. Judge Garzon has also (along with many others) publicly expressed the desire to interrogate Henry Kissinger about Operation Condor, a campaign of assassination and counter-terrorism carried out in the 70s by right-wing dictators in South America.

Judge Garzon believes that Achraf and the other conspirators have ties to the terrorists behind both the Madrid train bombings in 2004 and the 1993 WTC bombings.