Spanish political parties have called for ex-Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar to testify before a committee investigating the Madrid train bombings, with one alleging he tried to use the deadly attacks for political gain.
The investigation by the cross-party committee, which met for the first time on Wednesday, stands to reopen the emotional political divide provoked by the bombings, which came three days before the Socialists scored a surprise win in the March 14 elections.
Aznar's conservative party was thrown out of power in part due to public opposition to his hasty and erroneous blaming of Basque separatists when the investigation pointed to Islamic radicals.
Agusti Cerda Argent, Republican Left of Catalonia
"We hope that the committee will serve to (ensure)...that never again will the state entities use violence, an attack, to defeat other political parties," said Agusti Cerda Argent, a parliamentary committee member from the Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) party, which wants Aznar to appear.
Basque Nationalist Party committee member Emilio Olabarria said his party planned to request that Aznar testify before the committee.
The commission announces next Tuesday who it will question and which documents it wants to see for its public probe into the attacks that killed 191 people and wounded 1,900.
Committee chairman Paulino Rivero Baute said the probe's aim was to make sure Spain is ready to prevent another attack.
"We hope that this will serve to clarify if we are prepared for this new phenomenon of (Islamic) terrorism...what we can do from the point of view of the government to improve security conditions," he told a news conference.