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MADRID - A Spaniard on trial for selling Islamists explosives to carry out the Madrid train bombings dismissed suggestions today that he worked with Basque separatists ETA, describing such talk as "rumours".
When the bombs tore through commuter trains on March 11, 2004, the conservative government initially blamed the attack on ETA guerrillas.
Three years on, some right-wing groups are still trying to make the link, despite the state prosecutor saying there is no evidence of a relationship between ETA and the bombings, which killed 191 people and wounded about 2,000.
State prosecutor Olga Sanchez has said the attacks were inspired by al Qaeda, but not ordered by it.
"I don't have any relationship with ETA. These are rumours people have spread for their own ends," Trashorras said.
Spain is deeply divided over whether ETA played a part in the 2004 bombings.
After the bombings, evidence mounted that Islamists, not ETA, were behind the blasts. A video then surfaced claiming the killings in the name of al Qaeda and said they were revenge for Spain supporting the United States in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Spain turned against the pro-US conservatives and voted them out of office in an election three days after the bombings. The new Socialist government soon fulfilled a pledge to bring Spanish soldiers back from Iraq.
Trashorras is one of 29 people on trial in Spain's first case on the train bombings.
On Wednesday, judge Juan del Olmo, who investigated the attacks, accused Moroccan Abdelilah Hriz of being involved after his DNA was found in sites linked to the bombers.
Del Olmo charged Hriz, who is in prison in Morocco, with crimes including terrorist murder and will ask for him to be extradited to Spain. Hriz cannot join the current trial.
In London, a Syrian-born man accused of complicity in the bombings lost a final appeal against being extradited to Spain.
Moutaz Almallah Dabas, a Spanish citizen, is accused of providing support and accommodation to Islamist militants, including several alleged to be involved in the Madrid bombings.
- REUTERS
