Trial Begins for 2017 Barcelona Terror Attack Suspects

Among the three survivors of the jihadist cell responsible for the attack, two are alleged members of the jihadist cell, and the third would be an accomplice. Accused of belonging to a terrorist organization, manufacturing and possessing explosives, the main defendant, a 23-year-old who survived the explosion in Alcanar, Mohamed Houli Chemlal, faces 41 years in prison, reports 24heures.

The brother of one of the slain jihadists, Driss Oukabir, 31, risks 36 years in prison for having rented the van used on the Ramblas.

The third, Said Ben Lazza, 27, faces eight years in prison for having lent a vehicle and documents to the gang. But the three individuals were not prosecuted for the attacks themselves, as the civil parties would have liked. "For us, a member of the cell is as responsible as the one who commits the attack," said Robert Manrique, lawyer for the UAVAT association, representing 72 victims.

Driss Oukabir’s lawyer, Luis Álvarez Collado, told AFP that he would ask for his client to be acquitted. The fact that he rented the van "does not mean he knew it was going to be used to carry out the attack" and it was he himself who turned himself in to the police, when he had the opportunity to flee, the lawyer points out.

Javier Martinez, who lost his three-year-old son in the Rambla attack, insisted: "I will never get my son’s life back, but the threat is still there as we have seen in France or Austria." The trial will resume next Tuesday in Madrid and will end on December 16, concludes the same source.