OME OF EUROPE’S MOST WANTED LAIR OF THE RAMBLAS FUGITIVE
Dad claims mastermind was nice boy
THE mastermind of the Catalan massacre was a “nice boy” who was brainwashed, his family has claimed.
Moussa Oukabir was shot dead hours after he hired the van used to mow down innocent pedestrians on the Ramblas in Barcelona.
As police hunted the rest of his terror cell, Moussa’s family denied he was radicalised in his native Morocco.
Speaking from Melouiya, a village high in Morocco’s Atlas Mountains, fat father Said said: “We are in shock, co completely distraught.
“We are simple, peaceful people. We do don’t know anything about radicalism o or terrorism.”
Moussa is thought to have hired the v van using his older brother Driss O Oukabir’s ID. It is understood he was shot dead in Cambrils on Friday, while Driss, 27, remained in police custody. He was arrested hours after the atrocity on Thursday in the Spanish town of Ripoll, where they lived.
Praying
Said, who was quizzed by Moroccan police yesterday, said: “They lived like the young people of their age.
“Moussa was a nice boy who didn’t hurt anyone. He recently started praying... but it stopped there.”
Moussa is feared to have plotted the atrocity from his bedroom, where he would spout hate on social media. In one post, he raged: “Kill the infidels I just let Muslims follow the religion.”
Moussa, who would have celebrated his 18th birthday in October, was born in Ripoll, a town of around 10,000 people 60 miles north of Barcelona.
The family have since lived between Spain, Melouiya and another Moroccan town, Aghbala.
Friends and family claim Moussa had “doubtlessly” been manipulated.
A cousin said that he had “loved playing football, having a good time, chatting up girls”.
And revealing Moussa’s parents had divorced recently, they added: “Over the last few months he started to become interested in religion.
“He used to go to a mosque in Ripoll. Maybe that’s where he was brainwashed.”