Trio on trial for helping Barcelona jihadist attack cell

france24 ^ | 11/07/2020 | AFP

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Three men go on trial at Spain's top criminal court Tuesday for helping the perpetrators of twin jihadist attacks in 2017 that killed 16 in Barcelona and a nearby seaside town.

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the bloodshed which left another 140 people wounded on August 17 and 18 in Barcelona and Cambrils, a resort 100 kilometres (60 miles) to the south...

the trio will enter the dock facing charges of helping the attackers, one of whom rammed a van into pedestrians on Barcelona's Las Ramblas boulevard, killing 14 people.

The driver then went on the run, killing another person, and was shot dead by police several days later.

One day after the first attack, five of the driver's accomplices staged a second attack in Cambrils, ramming pedestrians and stabbing a woman who died of her injuries. All five were shot dead by police.

Prosecutors are seeking a 41-year prison term for Mohamed Houli Chemlal,...

Chemlal, 23, told investigators they had been planning attacks "on an even greater scale", with Barcelona's Sagrada Familia basilica, the stadium of the Barcelona football club or the Eiffel Tower...

But an accidental explosion at a house in Alcanar,... where the cell had been preparing explosives, pushed them to hurriedly improvise the two attacks.

Chemlal survived the blast, but it killed Abdelbaki Es Satty, a 44-year-old imam from the sleepy northern town of Ripoll who was allegedly responsible for radicalising the youngsters.

Driss Oukabir, 31, whose brother was one of the attackers, is facing the same charges as Chemlal, with prosecutors calling for a 36-year jail sentence for renting the van used in the Barcelona attack.

Prosecutors also want an eight-year jail term for Said Ben Iazza, 27, for collaborating with a terror group and lending them his van and ID.

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