MADRID (Reuters) - Spain's High Court sentenced 20 Islamic radicals to between five and 14 years in jail on Wednesday on charges linked to the formation of a group whose leader plotted to blow up the court's Madrid building.
Abderrahmane Tahiri, a Moroccan described by the court as"nearly obsessed" with his plan to kill Spanish judges bybombing the High Court in Madrid, was sentenced to 14 years forforming the terrorist group he led.
The court said in its ruling that no evidence had beenfound that the plot had got beyond Tahiri's imagination.
Apart from Tahiri, 17 men received jail terms for beingmembers of a terrorist group and two men were sentenced forassisting terrorists.
Thirty suspects arrested in October 2004 had been chargedwith crimes linked to the plot to blow up the High Court. Mostwere from Morocco and Algeria.
In March 2004, a separate group of Islamist bombers killed191 people in attacks on Madrid trains, for which 21 men werejailed. Spanish police have since regularly arrested suspectedIslamist militants and in January arrested 14 South Asianssuspected of plotting to attack Barcelona's Metro subway.
Prosecutors had asked for sentences from 8 to 43 years forthe High Court plot.
(Reporting by Teresa Larraz; Editing by Charles Dick)