Former PM denies rail bombing evidence was hidden

SPAIN: Spain's former prime minister Mr José María Aznar was yesterday subjected to a gruelling 10-hour session of interrogation by members of the parliamentary commission investigating the massacre of March 11th when 191 people died and over 1,600 were injured.

Mr Aznar denied allegations his government had lied and manipulated information to put the blame for the bombings on the Basque terrorist movement ETA, and hidden evidence that it was the work of radical Islamic groups.

He stressed he still did not rule out ETA's involvement in the attack, and that the main aim was to destabilise the government on the eve of the March 14th general elections.

Although Mr Aznar was not a candidate in these elections, his Popular Party (PP) was favourite to win a third term in office.

The hearings began at 9 a.m. and continued with only a short lunch break until after 7 p.m. Mr Aznar began with a brief defence of his actions before being asked well rehearsed questions from his own spokesman, Mr Eduardo Zaplana.

But his tone became aggressive when faced with tougher questioning from the opposition and nationalist parties. He constantly repeatedly accused "others" of "manipulation and lying venomously", and contradicted evidence given to the commission by two Islamic terrorism experts in earlier sessions that ETA and Islamic groups disliked one another and had no contacts.

To prove his point he called on the commission to open further investigation into the claims. "There is undeniable evidence proving links between al-Qaeda and ETA terrorism," he said pointing out that Basques and Arabs are known to have formed ties in prisons, that they obtained their explosives from the same sources and that they both had the same targets.

Mr Aznar claimed the date of March 11th - three days before the elections - was no coincidence and was aimed at influencing the vote. "If I had chosen March 7th, then I am convinced they would have attacked on March 4th," he said.

He repeated that there had been a deliberate campaign to overthrow his government by elements of the media who had accused officials of holding back information about the discovery of the van abandoned by the terrorists before they boarded the trains carrying bags containing the explosives.

Mr José Blanco, the socialist party organisational secretary, described Mr Aznar as seeing himself as "a victim of a mass conspiracy by political parties, the press and anyone else who didn't vote for PP".