Gang planned a larger attack, Barcelona terror suspect reveals
THE Barcelona terror cell behind last week’s van attack planned to use explosives against major monuments including the city’s famous Sagrada Familia church, one of the suspects has told a court hearing.
Mohamed Houli Chemlal, 21, who survived an explosion at an alleged bomb factory the day before the van atrocities said the Islamist gang had been preparing “an attack of larger dimensions”. He had known of the plans for an attack “at least two months ago”, he added.
A Spanish High Court judge last night jailed two of the four suspects, Chemlal and Driss Oukabir, charged with membership of a terrorist organisation, murder and possession of explosives.
A third suspect, Salh El Karib, who ran an internet café in the town of Ripoll, where most of the members of the cell lived, was remanded in police custody pending further investigation. The fourth suspect, Mohamed Aalla, will be released on certain conditions.
Chemlal, who was injured when an explosion ripped through a house in the town of Alcanar, south of Barcelona, last Wednesday, appeared yesterday at the National Court in Madrid, still dressed in blue hospital pyjamas.
The blast is believed to have killed two other members of the cell, including the imam thought to be the mastermind behind the plot, which left 15 people dead and scores injured.
The court yesterday heard that a plane ticket to Brussels belonging to Abdelbaki Es Satty, the imam, was found in the rubble of the house. An Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) document was also found at the site of the blast. Isil claimed responsibility for the van attack and a separate deadly assault, hours later, in the coastal resort of Cambrils, south of Barcelona.
Earlier, it emerged that Es Satty, a Moroccan national, was told he was to be expelled from Spain, after leaving prison in April 2014 following a conviction for drug smuggling.
But the Islamic preacher, 42, won an appeal against the decision by convincing a judge that his forced deportation was not in line with international law. He then sought asylum through lawyers in an application filed on Nov 29, 2014. While in prison, it is thought Es Satty became close to Rachid Aglif, one of the ringleaders of the 2004 Madrid train bombings which left 192 dead.
Chemlal told the court the terrorist cell had been building bombs in the house, but their plans were foiled when an explosion tore through the property, killing two of his co-conspirators, including Es Satty. Chemlal told the judge the imam had wanted to blow himself up. While two other suspects “blamed the imam for the plot while another two denied knowing him”, a judicial source said.
It was also claimed that Driss Oukabir, the older brother of one of the dead terrorists, told the investigating judge he had hired the vans for the attacks.
Last week, he reportedly told police his ID and documents had been stolen by his brother, Moussa, 17, but it is now understood that while he admits renting the vans, he will claim he thought they were to be used for removals.