Abdelilah Hriz, who was arrested in Morocco last Sunday, will be tried there for his part in the Atocha train station bombings on the 11th March 2004 that killed 191 and injured more than 1,800 others.

No extradition agreement exists between Spain and Morocco and this will be the first time ever that a suspect will be tried in Morocco for crimes committed in another country.

A spokesman for the Spanish High Court said yesterday that the decision highlights the "extraordinary level of judicial cooperation" that exists between Spain and Morocco.

An international arrest warrant was issued for Hriz on the 28th February after it was proven that his DNA matched traces detected on a comb found in the debris of the flat in Leganés where seven suspects blew themselves up three weeks after 11-M (photo), as well as on a pair of blood-stained trousers found at a rural finca in Chinchón where the terrorists manufactured and stored the ten bombs used in the attack.

There is also evidence of direct links between Hriz and other alleged organisers, including Mohammed Afalah, a Moroccan who fled Spain after the attack and who is believed to have died in a suicide attack in Iraq.