Suspect: Imam planned to blow up self in Barcelona

MADRID — An extremist cell in northeastern Spain was preparing bombs for an imam who planned to blow himself up at a Barcelona monument, a key suspect in the attacks that killed 15 people in northeastern Spain told a judge Tuesday, according to a judicial official.

The suspect, Mohamed Houli Chemlal, 21, was one of four men brought before Spain’s National Court to testify about the Islamic extremist cell that attacked pedestrians in Barcelona and the town of Cambrils last week.

National Court Judge Fernando Andreu is scheduled to rule later Tuesday on the prosecutor’s request to send the four to jail without bail for preliminary accusations of being part of a terrorist organization, homicide, causing havoc and dealing with explosives.

A Spanish judicial official says Houli Chemlal and suspect Driss Oukabir, 28, identified the imam, Abdelbaki Es Satty, as the ideologist of the 12-man cell.

Oukabir and two other suspects who testified Tuesday, Mohamed Aalla and Sahal El Karib, denied being part of the cell, said the court official, who was not authorized to speak about ongoing cases and requested anonymity.

The cell’s other eight members have either been killed by police — five were shot dead Friday and one Monday after a manhunt — or accidently blew themselves up.

Es Satty preached in a mosque in Ripoll, home to most of the 12 pointed by police as being possible members of the cell.

Police have identified his remains amid the rubble of the Aug. 16 explosion that destroyed the house in Alcanar.

Police found in the house over 100 tanks of butane gas and materials to make TATP, an explosive frequently used in attacks by Islamic State militants. The group has claimed responsibility for both attacks.