A key suspect allegedly involved in last year's Madrid train bombings has been put in extradition detention in Belgrade, the Serbian Interior Ministry said on Thursday.

Moroccan national Abdelmajid Bouchar was arrested Tuesday night on a train traveling from the northern Serbian city of Subotica to Belgrade for entering Serbia with false ID documents.

He held a forged Iraqi passport by the name of Midhat Salah.

Bouchar is wanted by Madrid on an international arrest warrant over his alleged involvement in the March 11, 2004 bombings of four trains that left 191 dead and 1,500 injured.

The Serbian ministry said Bouchar was questioned by officials of the Belgrade District Court on Wednesday, after which he was sent to extradition detention.

Court officials said that an extradition detention can last up to one year, while Bouchar's detention will be reviewed every two months, until conditions are met for his extradition to Spain.
 
Serbia-Montenegro Minister of Human and Minority Rights Rasim Ljajic said on Thursday that the National Bureau of Interpol for Serbia-Montenegro had informed the bureau in Spain that Bouchar had been sentenced to detention pending extradition and that the Spanish government should issue an extradition warrant.

"It will certainly take several weeks, maybe even months, before the procedure is completed. Our District Court will reach a decision based on that documentation. And the person, against whom the extradition warrant is to be issued, has the right of an appeal," Ljajic was quoted by the official Tanjug news agency as saying.

(Xinhua News Agency August 19, 2005)