Barcelona terror attack: three in court in Madrid

Three men have appeared in court in Madrid to face trial over their alleged roles in the 2017 terror attacks in Catalonia that left 16 people dead and 140 wounded.

The perpetrators of the atrocities – Spain’s worst terror attack since the Madrid train bombings in March 2004 – used a van to knock down pedestrians on Barcelona’s La Rambla boulevard on 17 August 2017 and then staged another assault the following day in the Catalan coastal town of Cambrils.

Local police shot the five Cambrils attackers dead at the scene while officers killed the Barcelona attacker a few days later. Isis claimed responsibility for the attacks, saying their authors were “soldiers of the Islamic State”.

One of those on trial, Mohamed Houli Chemlal, said the cell had been planning larger scale bomb attacks against targets including Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia church, but had changed their plans after an explosion tore through the house where the plotters were staying in the coastal town of Alcanar.

The Catalan police, the Mossos d’Esquadra, also said the blast had deprived the group of the capacity to stage an even deadlier attack.

“The explosion in Alcanar meant they no longer had the necessary material to plan larger scale attacks in Barcelona,” said Josep Lluís Trapero, head of the force at the time. “They were probably trying to carry out a different kind of attack.”

Chemlal was injured in the blast, which killed two of the plotters, including Abdelbaki Es Satty, an imam suspected of radicalising and organising the cell.

Prosecutors are seeking a 41-year jail term for Chemlal on charges of belonging to a terrorist organisation, possession of explosives and conspiracy to commit terrorist acts. But, like his co-accused, Chemlal is not facing murder charges.

Driss Oukabir, whose brother was one of the attackers shot dead in Cambrils, faces the same charges as Chemlal, for which prosecutors are seeking a 36-year sentence. The 31-year-old has admitted hiring the van used in the Barcelona attack, but claims he believed the vehicle had been hired for a house move.

The third defendant, Said Ben Iazza, 27, faces an eight-year sentence on charges of collaborating with a terror group for allegedly lending the conspirators his identity documents and a van “that he knew would be used to buy and transport chemical products”.

The head of one of the victims’ associations that is acting as a civil party in the proceedings said he would push for the accused to answer for the deaths of those murdered in the attacks.

“[We’re] going to fight for a murder charge and sentence for the accused … regardless of how close or far they were from the van [used in Barcelona],” said Eulogio Paz.

The trial is expected to run until 16 December.