Spanish Politician’s Assassination Attempt Linked to Moroccan Mafia, Suspect Arrested

Mehrez Ayari was arrested on June 6 in the Netherlands. The Spanish National Court confirmed the information on Wednesday, June 19, recalling that it had issued an international arrest warrant against him. The 37-year-old man would be the author of the failed shot against the former president of the Popular Party (PP), founding member of the far-right party Vox and former vice-president of the European Parliament. Last November 9, this French of Tunisian origin, wanted by the justice system in the Netherlands and France, shot at Vidal-Quadras in broad daylight in Madrid before fleeing on his motorcycle.

According to the investigators, he would have left Spain via Portugal after his crime. His arrest in the Netherlands follows another attempted assassination in which he would be involved. Before the Franco-Tunisian, a woman under an arrest warrant issued by the Spanish authorities had been arrested on April 30 in the Netherlands for her alleged involvement in this attack. In January, a Venezuelan citizen who was also the subject of an international arrest warrant for a terrorist crime in Spain was arrested at the Colombian border.

Three other suspects have been arrested in Spain. In total, six people have already been arrested in connection with this case. Investigators are looking for a Moroccan who would have played a key role in the commission of this attack. During a press conference held in Madrid on February 23, Alejo Vidal-Quadras accused Iran of being behind his attempted assassination. "I have no doubt that it was the Iranian regime," he hammered, urging investigators to explore this lead, even if "it is not easy to establish the relationship between the hired killers detained and the Iranian regime."

The Spanish politician is convinced of this thesis because of his support for dissidents of the Iranian regime. Investigators now favor this hypothesis, according to sources at Europa Press, specifying that the Iranian authorities would have entrusted this mission to the Mocro Maffia, which in turn recruited Mehrez Ayari to commit the crime. Unfortunately or fortunately, this 37-year-old Franco-Tunisian missed his target. The investigation is ongoing.