16-Year-Old Sentenced in Madrid Bombing

A 16-year-old Spaniard was sentenced Tuesday to six years in a juvenile detention center after he pleaded guilty to helping steal and transport dynamite used in the March 11 train bombings here.

It was the first trial arising from the bombings, which killed 191 people and wounded 1,900.

The defendant was identified only by his initials, G.M., because he is a minor. He made a short appearance in the armored basement courtroom of Madrid’s High Court building. The trial had been moved from the Juvenile Court for security reasons.

The public was separated from the court by bulletproof glass. The defendant, with his mother sitting next to him, was hidden from view by a screen. In his sentence, five years of court supervision were to follow the six years of detention.

Most of the 30 train bombing suspects under arrest or court supervision are North Africans. In videotaped messages, they claimed to represent Al Qaeda in Europe and said they were attacking Spain for sending troops to Iraq and Afghanistan.

The juvenile, however, was from the northern Spanish region of Asturias. He came into the plot through links to an older Spanish man who dealt in drugs and black-market explosives, prosecutors said.

In February, while others were stealing dynamite from an Asturias mine, he waited outside. Other suspects then took the explosives to Madrid in a car, prosecutors said.

The youth was later sent to Madrid by bus to get the car, carrying more explosives in a backpack, for which he got $1,557.