Spanish Court Rushes Trial of Moroccan Jihadists to Prevent Prison Release

The five defendants, all previously convicted of terrorism, met in various prisons in Spain between 2014 and 2019. They are accused again of crimes of belonging to a criminal organization and terrorist indoctrination. The National Court wants to accelerate the procedures so that their trial starts in early July in order to prevent one of them, Abderrahmane Tahiri (known as Mohamed Achraf) from being released from prison.

To read: ISIS Supporter Arrested in Spain for Alleged Terrorist Recruitment

The accused exchanged letters that the Civil Guard is analyzing. These texts contain chants used by jihadist terrorist organizations to encourage their fighters to continue the missions for which they had been arrested and convicted. The group leader, Achraf, of Moroccan origin, had been sentenced in 2008 by the National High Court to 14 years in prison for belonging to a terrorist organization. He had already been convicted of Salafist, jihadist and takfirist indoctrination of the Muslim prison population, according to La Razon.

He is the true spiritual leader of the group. During his stay at the Estremera prison (Madrid), he drew the flag of DAESH on certain walls with phrases such as: "We are the soldiers of the caliphate", "The Islamic State, that’s us". He recruited inmates and indoctrinated them in the prison yard. "We are condemned for the same thing, we think the same thing, we act the same way, we have the same ideas, the same thoughts [...], the same affinities and the same ideology," he said in one of his letters.

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Achraf should be released in October 2022 if there is no conviction. The criminal chamber of the National Court therefore wants to accelerate the procedures to prevent this jihadist from leaving prison. The trial will take place from July 4 to 8, according to judicial sources. El Gharbi (sentenced in 2019 to 8 years) expressed in prison his desire to die as a kamikaze. For his part, Abdelah Abdesalam (sentenced to 10 years in 2016) exerted a great influence on the other inmates. He and Karim Abdesalam had created a jihadist organization in 2016 in order to send fighters to Syria.

Lahcen Zamzami, sentenced in 2018 to 12 years, was very discreet, but had a much broader knowledge of religion. Some prisoners call him "admirable brother" or "dear father". The Association of Victims of Terrorism (AVT) and the 11M Association Affected by Terrorism are demanding that they be convicted for the constitution of a terrorist group, terrorist collaboration, recruitment and indoctrination.