Spanish Court Sentences Three Brothers for Recruiting Jihadist Killed in Syria

The three brothers recruited Mohamed Kaouch, a young Moroccan residing in the same city, and sent him to fight in Syria. The young man lost his life there in a bombing. The court considers that the three convicted for a crime of belonging to a criminal organization have carried out terrorist actions in conflict zones, in this case in Syria.

According to the Audiencia Nacional, Kaouch became a jihadist radical in 2008, during his stay in the Modelo de Barcelona prison, where he was indoctrinated by a Moroccan prisoner known as Mohamed Rifi. In 2012, Kaouch went to Morocco with another young man who also attended the indoctrination meetings of the three brothers, before obtaining a visa for Turkey in 2014 from where he joined Syria to fight alongside Daesh.

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The Moroccan maintained contact with his relatives in Spain until 2016, the year in which the sisters of the young man who accompanied him to Morocco informed his family of his death in a bombing in Syria. The court made its decision based on the statements of a protected witness who reported the terrorist group that held meetings to indoctrinate Muslim followers to the police.

For their part, the three brothers denied the facts during their appearance at the hearing held last April at the Audiencia Nacional. They claimed they were not engaged in recruitment, indoctrination and radicalization activities. "Not all Muslims are radicals," said one of them, stating that the meetings organized were attended by "friends and relatives."