Prison deal for would-be jihadist

Murcia-born mother of four was arrested in Alicante

Would-be Spanish jihadist Dolores Hidalgo Rubio has accepted a five-year prison sentence during her trial at the National High Court, after admitting that she tried to travel from Alicante with her four children, to join her husband in Syria and form part of the Islamic State Group (IS) terrorist organisation.

Following her confession, the state prosecutor reduced her proposed sentence, from nine to five years, for the crime of belonging to an international terrorist organisation. Dolores, originally from Murcia, was arrested in Alicante on February 2017.

The state prosecutor in his statement said that her husband Mohamed Belguin with the help of his friend Hadj Tabbai, both of whom have outstanding arrest warrants, escaped from Spain in May 2014 and travelled to Syria where they joined the ranks of IS.

It has not been confirmed that they were killed in Syria, although Dolores did publish in social media that she lamented her husband’s death.

The statement went on to say that before leaving Spain, Mohammed made all the necessary preparations to allow his wife and four children to follow him to Syria, accompanied by a friend.

Dolores declared that she was determined to travel to Syria with her children, but was unable to do so immediately as she could not get travel documents for her youngest child, as Mohammed had left the country without signing parental consent for the minor’s travel.

To get around this, Dolores reported her husband for abandoning the family home.

The accused also formed part of a female WhatsApp group called “Allah is the sole God, and Mahoma is his prophet”, whose members distributed information about the IS.