Jean-Charles Brisard has been engaged as chief investigator for American law firm Motley Rice. His job is to find the economic backers of al-Qaida's September 11th attack in the USA on behalf of victims' families.
Brisard claims that Zougam visited mullah Krekar and his brother several times between 1996 and 2001, citing documents received from intelligence sources of Norwegian police.
Krekar's lawyer Brynjar Meling said that his client, former leader of the Kurdish guerilla group Ansar al-Islam in Northern Iraq, denied any knowledge of the Madrid suspect.
Police sources told Reuters bomb survivors had identified Zougam from photographs as having been on board one of the trains but they were treating witness reports cautiously.
Spanish police found videotape of mullah Krekar and Ansar al-Islam during a raid on Jamal Zougam's home in 2001, according to another VG report. Zougam has been under surveillance by Moroccan intelligence since a bombing at a Spanish culture center in Casablanca last year.
"We don't know if mullah Krekar has been a terrorist but we know that he has been a spiritual leader for militant Muslims," Brisard told the newspaper.
"I question Brisard's seriousness when he gives out information he claims to have from Norwegian secret police. But I will of course confront the police with the information and ask for full access," Meling said.
