Four Madrid bomb convicts cleared
Spain's Supreme Court has overturned the conviction of four people found guilty of involvement in the Madrid train bombings in 2004.
The four were among 21 people convicted last year over the attacks, which killed 191 people.
The court also upheld the acquittal of an Egyptian suspected of masterminding the attacks, because he had already been convicted of the offence in Italy.
However it convicted and jailed one of those originally found not guilty.
Egyptian man Rabei Osman had been cleared of mass murder in the bombings at a trial in Madrid in October.
As he had already been sentenced to eight years in prison in Italy, the court ruled he could not be convicted again for the same crime.
Changing the course of history
The Madrid bombing - in which 10 rucksack bombs tore through four packed commuter trains on 11 March 2004 - was Europe's worst terror attack since the 1988 Lockerbie bombing.
Analysts say the attacks changed the course of Spanish politics because in an election three days later voters ditched a conservative government that at first blamed the bombs on the Spanish separatist group Eta.
Spanish investigators say the accused were part of a local Islamist militant group inspired by al-Qaeda, but had no direct links to the terror organisation.
They had acted to avenge the presence of Spanish troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, said investigators.
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