Spaniard Jailed for 6 Years in Madrid Bomb Trial
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MADRID (Reuters) - A 16-year-old Spaniard was sentenced to six years in a juvenile detention center on Tuesday after he pleaded guilty to charges he helped steal and transport dynamite used in the March 11 Madrid train bombings.
 

It was the first trial arising from the bombings that killed 191 people and wounded 1,900, the most devastating attack in modern Spanish history.
 

The juvenile -- identified only by his initials G.M. because he is a minor -- made a short appearance in the armored basement courtroom in Madrid's High Court building. The trial had been moved from the juvenile court for security reasons.
 

Most of the 30 train bombing suspects under arrest or court supervision are North Africans described by High Court Judge Juan del Olmo as waging an Islamic holy war against the West.
 

In videotaped messages the bombers claimed to represent al Qaeda in Europe and said they were attacking Spain for sending troops to Iraq and Afghanistan.
 

The juvenile, however, was a Spaniard from the northern region of Asturias who 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 in a car outside, and Moroccan suspects then took the explosives to Madrid in a car, they said.
 

BACKPACK HELD EXPLOSIVES
 

He was later sent to Madrid on a bus to retrieve the car -- but on the way he carried with him a backpack containing more explosives, for which he received 1,200 euros ($1,557). Other explosives were paid for in Moroccan hashish.
 

Police arrested two people and seized weapons, explosives, detonators and drugs on Tuesday in the same Asturias region where the explosives used in the March 11 attacks originated. It was also the same brand of dynamite.
 

"The arrested individuals may have been engaged in selling explosives, weapons and drugs," the Interior Ministry said in a statement.
 

In court, Judge Jose Maria Vazquez Honrubia asked the defendant if he agreed with those charges and the six-year term proposed by the prosecutor.
 

He replied simply: "Yes."
 

The judge then sentenced him to six years in a juvenile detention center followed by five more years of supervision.
 

The public was separated from the court by bullet-proof glass. The defendant, whose mother sat next to him, was hidden from view by a screen.
 

The case came to trial a relatively swift eight months after the attacks because the defendant is a minor. His associates called him El Guaje, meaning The Little Guy.
 

The stolen TNT was packed into 14 bombs of roughly 22 to 25 pounds each that were hidden in sports bags and left aboard four packed commuter trains.
 

Ten of the bombs went off at roughly the same time, three duds were destroyed by police, and one -- found 12 hours later in a police warehouse where it had been moved unintentionally -- provided virtually all the breaks in the case, starting with the mobile phone used to trigger the detonator.