Terror suspect free to walk streets

A London man today denied any link to the Madrid bombings after being named as a leader of the radical Islamic group behind the attacks.

Mohammed al-Gerbouzi is living openly in north London despite an international arrest warrant having been issued for him over his alleged role in the al Qaeda-linked group. He is accused by Moroccan authorities of being a key member of the Group of Islamic Combatants of Morocco - a cell which Spanish authorities believe was behind the Madrid attacks.

Because Britain has no extradition treaty with Morocco he is free to live here, and was given British citizenship in the mid-Nineties.

Today attention was turning to the cell's international links after five of its members blew themselves up rather than be captured by Spanish security forces in Madrid.

Authorities in Madrid said they had concluded there were a total of five terrorists in the flat when it was blown up, along with 10kg of explosives and up to 200 detonators.

Among the men thought to be dead was the man named by a Spanish judge as the ringleader of the attacks, Sarhane Ben Abdelmajid Fakhet, also known as the Tunisian.

Another of the key suspects, Moroccan Abdennabi Kounjaa, was also killed. Spanish interior minister Angel Acebes said: "The core of the group that carried out the attacks is either arrested or dead."

The explosion also killed a policeman. Today the Spanish investigation was turning to the group's international links - including whether the cell was connected with al-Gerbouzi. The Moroccan already faces 20 years in jail if he returns to his home country, where he was sentenced in his absence for his part in Islamic fundamentalist activities.

The 44-year-old father of six has been quizzed by MI5 about his alleged links to Islamist groups, but has denied any involvement in terrorism. The group which he is suspected of being involved in has been named as being behind the suicide attacks in Casablanca last year carried out on Spanish and Jewish targets. "I'm Muslim and I pray," he said. "I have no involvement. They had no evidence against me."

Although he admits to having held talks with notorious radical clerics Abu Hamza and Abu Qatada - dubbed Osama bin Laden's ambassador in Europe and now interned at Belmarsh prison - he said he was not a terrorist.

"I'm against what happened in Spain, I'm against what happened in Casablanca, I'm against killing innocent people," he said.

Police were today continuing to question eight British Muslims held over a bomb plot following the discovery of half a tonne of fertilisers which could have been used in a series of explosions.