Moroccan denies participation in Madrid attacks, tells of ill-treatment at prison

Moroccan national, Jamal Zougam, suspected of being one of those who planted bombs in Madrid commuter trains on March 11, 2004, said this Wednesday, as he appeared as a witness in the trial of Al-Qaeda members in Spain, he is innocent and complained of ill treatment in prison.

"I have been keeping a shop until March 13 when I was arrested and my picture shown on all the world's TV channels," he said.

Jamal Zougam owned a mobile phone shop believed to be the source of the mobile phones which served to trigger the bombs placed in the trains, killing 192 commuters.

One of the mobile phones which did not detonate led the Spanish police to the Moroccan suspect whom several witnesses have reportedly recognized as one of the men who planted the bombs.

Zougam appeared as a witness in the trial of Al-Qaeda ring in Spain suspected of participating in the March 11 attacks in Madrid.

He also denied any personal relation with the ringleader, Syrian Imad Eddine Brakt Yarkas, AKA "Abou Dahdah," through acknowledging that he had known him as a shopkeeper in the same district.

He also told the prosecutor all the phone conversations he had with Abou Dahdah were for business but said he did not remember a phone talk with the Syrian on September 5, 2001, announcing his return to Morocco.

The Syrian man had also confirmed that his contacts with Zougam were merely for business and that he did not consider him as a "good Muslim" for he used to hang out with girls.

Zougam, who said he arrived in Spain when he was 15 after his parents divorc, told the court "I have worked wherever I could find a job, on construction sites, in restaurants and as a shopkeeper until March 13, 2004 when they came to arrest me."

He also denied knowing a man named Salaheddine Benyaich, AKA "Abou Moghn," a former fighter in Bosnia and in Chechnya, currently imprisoned in Morocco for involvement in the Casablanca terrorist attacks of May 16, 2003.

Zougam who said he does not known anything about "Jihad" (holy war) and about Afghanistan stressed that his "real war was to help his father back home raise seven children."

Before leaving the courtroom, he asked to add something, but the judge refused and he, however, complained "I am ill-treated in the prison."