Madrid bombers cleared

Four people convicted of involvement in the Madrid train bombings in 2004 have had their convictions overturned by Spain's Supreme Court.

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.

The Spanish man, who was sentenced to four years in prison, had earlier been cleared of helping to supply the explosives used in the Madrid attacks.

The Egyptian man, Rabei Osman Sayed Ahmed, had been cleared of involvement in the bombings in October.

As he had already been sentenced to eight years in prison in Italy for belonging to a terrorist organization, the court ruled he could not be convicted again for the same crime.

Prosecutors had argued that Sayed was appealing against the Italian judgement and technically had not been convicted.

Sayed's lawyers in that case are challenging key evidence - a recording in which he apparently boasts of masterminding the bombings.

They say the voice heard is not his, and that it has been mistranslated.