MADRID (AFP) - A teenage youth was due in the dock for the first trial of a suspect implicated in the Madrid train bombings, which killed 191 people in Spain's worst terrorist attack.
The teen, who cannot be named for legal reasons, faces up to eight years in detention for allegedly handling the explosives used in the attack on four commuter trains which brought the US-led "war on terror" to Spain's doorstep.
The trial, set to last for three days, was scheduled to start at 1530 GMT at Madrid's supreme court, itself the target of a separate intended attack which the Spanish judiciary is currently investigating.
The 16-year-old, nicknamed "El Gitanillo" (the little gypsy), is accused of helping to transport the explosives used in the attacks which left some 1,900 people injured on top of the fatalities.
The prosecution is calling for an eight-year detention in a youth centre for the accused, who will appear in court hidden by a screen at a trial where cameramen and photographers will be banned, in line with all hearings of minors.
Written media will be present.
El Gitanillo, detained on June 16, is one of 19 suspects held on suspicion of involvement in the attacks. The majority are Moroccan nationals.
Warrants have been issued for six fugitive suspects while seven others blew themselves up in a police raid on a flat in a southern suburb of Madrid on April 3.
Examinining magistrate Juan del Olmo, who in all has identified 32 suspects believed connected with the blasts, is hoping to complete work on his dossier before the first anniversary of the bombings, judicial sources assert.
The youth is believed to have become caught up in a network of drug dealers who, the Spanish authorities say, traded explosives stolen from the mines for drugs, selling the dynamite to the bombers.
The prosecution maintains the suspect helped to transport some 20 kilogrammes (44 pounds) by bus to Madrid, where he transferred the material to contacts in a bar.
One of those contacts, del Olmo believes, was Jamal Ahmidan, one of seven people who blew themselves up in a police raid in the Madrid suburb of Leganes during a police raid on April 3.
According to judicial sources, the 16-year-old was paid around 1,000 euros (1,300 dollars) for his help which he has admitted to investigators.
In late February, the teen is alleged to have gone to a mine with another suspect, former miner Emilio Suarez, who, it is alleged, then met Ahmidan and two other suspects, Abdenabi Kounjaa and Mohamed Oulad Akcha, at his home two days later.
Suarez is understood to have then sent his young accomplice back to Madrid on March 4, a week before the attacks, where he again is alleged to have met up with Akcha.
On the morning of March 11, the bombers placed bags containing the explosives on four trains which they set off via mobile phone within minutes of each other at three packed railway stations -- Atocha, a major interchange in central Madrid, Pozo and Santa Eugenia.
Spain's then conservative government initially blamed the blasts on Basque separatist group ETA, which was last December caught red-handed plotting to blow up a mainline train.
However, evidence swiftly emerged fingering radical Muslims seeking to punish Spain for supporting the US-led war in Iraq.
11/16/2004 - 15:19 GMT - AFP