Spain's supreme court sentenced on Wednesday the two main defendants in the Madrid train bombing to about 43,000 years in prison.
The attacks, on March 11, 2004, killed 191 people and injured 1,800 others.
National Court President Javier Gomez read the sentences during a public hearing carried out under intense security measures. Dozens of journalists and representatives of victims' families attended the event.
Judge Javier Gomez Bermudez points as he takes his seat inside an annex of the High Court before reading out the verdicts of the 2004 Madrid train bombings trial in Madrid, October 31, 2007.
Moroccan natives Otman El Ganoui and Jamal Zougam were sentenced to 42,924 years and 42,922 years in prison respectively.
Most of the defendants were Arabs, while the rest were Spaniards, including Jose Emilio Suarez Tashorras, who was sentenced to 38,976 years in prison, convicted of facilitating the explosives used in making the bombs.
Seven of the 28 defendants were acquitted, and in some cases, lower sentences than those requested by the prosecution were handed down, according to a victims' association.
People embrace outside the High Court after hearing the verdicts of the 2004 Madrid train bombings trial in Madrid October 31, 2007.
Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said on Wednesday that the harsh sentences served the terrorists right. He also expressed solidarity with the victims' families.
Meanwhile, victims' associations expressed dissatisfaction with the result, saying they will appeal "wherever necessary."
Angeles Dominguez, head of a group called Help the M-11 Victims, said that people have been sentenced but they want to know "who masterminded the attacks."
The accusations against the defendants included homicide, assassination attempts, explosives possession and membership of terrorist groups.
Spain does not impose the death sentence nor life imprisonment and the maximum sentence for a convict is 40 years.
The March 11 terrorist attacks in 2004 was the deadliest after the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington, that left 3,500 dead.
The train bomb attacks in Madrid have been blamed on a group linked to Al Qaida in retaliation for Spanish troops sent to Iraq.
The government of former prime minister Jose Maria Aznar sent troops to Iraq, while his successor Zapatero withdrew all Spanish forces.
(Xinhua News Agency November 1, 2007)
