MADRID (AFP) - A judge in Spain Thursday filed terrorism charges against 11 South Asians, most of them Pakistanis, suspected of planning suicide attacks in Barcelona and elsewhere in Europe.
Ten of those charged were arrested in Barcelona, northeastern Spain, in January in raids during which police also recovered bomb-making equipment.
Judge Ismael Moreno of Spain's anti-terrorist court issued an arrest warrant for the other suspect, Aqueel Ur Rehman Abbasi, a Pakistani residing in The Netherlands.
All 11 were charged with belonging to a terrorist group.
Eight were additionally accused of possessing explosives, even though explosives seized at the time of the arrests "did not have the capacity to cause major damage," Moreno said in the indictment, a copy of which was obtained by AFP from judicial sources.
The charges were based on the declarations of an informant who was a member of the suspected Islamist cell and is now a protected witness.
The cell is suspected of planning suicide bombings in the Barcelona metro and other European cities.
After the arrests, Spain's intelligence services had warned Paris, London and Lisbon of the threat of terrorist attacks linked to a European tour by Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf.
More...
