Spain’s national court has granted provisional freedom to ten of thirty terrorism suspects charged with plans to blow up the court building. In 2004, in what was called Operacion Nova, an Islamist cell to blow up the building was dismantled. The suspects who are believed to have links to al-Qaeda, face between 8 and 43 years in prison. Ten of them were granted conditional freedom by the national court after being jailed for four years – half the maximum sentence that they faced. However, only five of the ten will be permitted to leave, as the others must continue to serve sentences for other offences. The suspects who will be released have been ordered to report regularly to police and are forbidden to leave Spain.
