Two dozen suspected members of a Spanish al-Qaeda cell who are accused of aiding preparations for the 9/11 attacks appeared in court today in Europe's biggest anti-terror trial.

The 24 men are mostly Syrians and Moroccans who have lived in Spain for many years. They include Imad Yarkas, 42, a Syrian-born Spaniard who is alleged to have supervised a cell that provided logistical support for the September 11 hijackers, including Mohammed Atta. Two other suspects also are accused specifically of helping plan the attack.

Prosecutors are seeking jail terms of almost 75,000 years each for the three - 25 years for each of the nearly 3,000 people killed in the attack – but the maximum sentence for a terrorism conviction under Spanish law is 40 years.

Police armed with submachine guns stood guard as vans brought the handcuffed defendants behind a tall iron fence to the courthouse, a squat, red-brick building on the outskirts of Madrid that has been specially adapted for the trial.

The National Court was too small for such a large trial, which is expected to last up to two years. A police helicopter circled low overhead and agents with sniffer dogs searched the nearby area for bombs.

After the suspects were brought into the courtroom, the court clerk read out the names of the 24 defendants and the charges against them.

Spain is only the second country after Germany outside the US to try suspects for the al-Qaeda terror attacks.

Baltasar Garzon, Spain’s top anti-terrorism magistrate, began investigating Muslim militants in Spain in the mid-1990s and started arresting 9/11 suspects just two months after the hijacked jets crashed into the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon.

Senor Garzon has said his investigation revealed Muslim militants leading discreet lives operated freely in Spain for years, allegedly recruiting men for terrorist training in Afghanistan, preaching holy war and laundering money for al-Qaeda operations.

Spain was struck by terrorists linked with al-Qaeda in the Madrid train bombings of March 2004, which killed 191 people. The trial is expected to lay out legal guidelines for that case as well.

Under Spanish law, terrorism is classified as a crime that can be prosecuted there even if it is alleged to have been committed in another country. Senor Garzon also argues he can go after al-Qaeda because the September 11 plot was partly set up in Spain.

Jacobo Teijelo, lawyer for Senor Yarkas, argues that Spain lacks jurisdiction because proceedings are under way in the United States against a French citizen Zacarias Moussaoui, the only person indicted in America in the September 11 attacks. He may go on trial later this month.

Senor Teijelo said Spanish prosecutors "have no solid evidence of anything" and he questioned why his client and his alleged accomplices had not been extradited to the US if they were partly responsible for the attacks.

The other 17 men named in the indictment are either fugitives or in custody in other countries.

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