Madrid Train Bombing Convict Extradited to Morocco After 14 Years in Spanish Prison

The information was whispered to the EFE by the Spokesperson of the Defense Coordination of Islamist detainees, Abderrahim Ghazali, who claims that the man was transferred to Morocco on June 4, after a 14-year incarceration in Spain. Hassan El Haski was immediately placed in detention in the Salé prison.

In 2009, the man had been extradited to Morocco for a period of 6 months after authorization from the Audiencia Nacional, the highest judicial authority in the country, to be tried in the context of the attacks that had mourned the city of Casablanca on May 16, 2003. He had then returned to Spain to serve the rest of his sentence.

In Morocco, he had been acquitted at first instance before being sentenced to 10 years in prison by the Court of Appeal of Salé, specialized in terrorism cases. It is precisely this sentence that he must serve today in the Kingdom. For his lawyer, Jalil Idrissi, his client’s detention in Spain was very difficult. "He was a victim of ill-treatment and deprived of his most basic rights".

The lawyer also expresses his intention to file an appeal in Morocco to demand El Haski’s release, after he has served a 14-year sentence in Spain. For the lawyer, it is a "double sentence".

The EFE recalls that El haski was part of a group of 18 individuals convicted for the Madrid massacres. He was recognized as the main leader of the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group (GCIM), a group considered the right-hand man of Al Qaeda in Europe.