MADRID, Oct 31: A Spanish court found 21 people guilty on Wednesday of involvement in the 2004 Madrid train bombings which killed 191 people but the alleged masterminds were cleared of plotting Europe’s deadliest militant attack.

Moroccans Jamal Zougam and Othman el Gnaoui were each sentenced to more than 40,000 years in prison for the bombings, although under Spanish law they can only serve a maximum of 40.

Zougam and Gnaoui were convicted of belonging to a terrorist organisation and terrorist murder. Spaniard Emilio Suarez Trashorras, who also helped supply the bombers with explosives, got thousands of years in jail.

Seven of the 28 accused were acquitted of any involvement in the bombings including one alleged mastermind, Rabei Osman Sayed Ahmed, known as “Mohamed the Egyptian”, who is already jailed in Italy for belonging to an international terrorist group.

Another two men accused of planning the attack, who listened to their sentences from behind a bullet-proof wall, were also cleared of the March 11 deaths but were found guilty and jailed for belonging to a terrorist organisation.

Judge Javier Gomez Bermudez ruled out participation of Basque guerillas ETA in the bombings, which also injured more than 1,800 people when 10 bombs packed into sports bags ripped through four commuter trains.

Prosecutors said the bombers were inspired by Al Qaeda.

Many survivors and families who lost members gathered at the courthouse and expressed disappointment at the sentences.

“It seems to us that only a few of them got a lot of years in prison. There aren’t many heavy sentences considering how many people were affected,” said Eutiquio Gutierrez, whose 39-year old daughter died in the bombing, trembling as he spoke.

Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero addressed himself to relatives of the dead. “Nothing can make up for the loss, but now their suffering can be alleviated by knowing the truth of what happened and who did it,” Mr Zapatero told a news conference.

All the suspects pleaded innocent and those found guilty are expected to appeal against their sentences.

The verdicts close another chapter on the bombings but with a parliamentary election less than five months away, they could embarrass the opposition centre-right Popular Party, which initially blamed ETA for the attack.

The blasts hit three days before the last elections, which the then Popular Party government had looked set to win, despite having led the country into the highly unpopular war in Iraq.

But the conservative government’s insistence that Basque separatists planted the bombs backfired when evidence piled up to show they were the work of Muslim militants.—Reuters