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WORLD NEWS Tuesday 5 sepTember 2017

Spain attacks investigation focusing on international links

By ARITZ PARRA stayed out of trouble for at
LORI HINNANT least two years, he avoided
Associated Press prison.
MADRID (AP) — The investi- He had moved in with an
gation of attacks that killed older relative named Mu-
16 people in Barcelona stapha who lived in cen-
and a nearby town is be- tral Vilanova i la Geltru, a
coming increasingly inter- coastal town 50 kilome-
national, as police piece ters (30 miles) south of Bar-
together who ordered the celona where he started
carnage and how. The preaching. But his name
clues include a lightning- resurfaced as part of two
fast shopping trip to a Paris In this Tuesday, Aug. 22, 2017 combination file photo, four un-named alleged members of a terror separate investigations
suburb and plane tickets to cell accused of killing 15 people in attacks in Barcelona leaves a Civil Guard base on the outskirts linked to the 2004 al-Qaida
Belgium. of Madrid before appearing in court in Madrid, Spain. The investigation into last month’s attacks in bombings of Madrid com-
At the center of the probe Spain is becoming increasingly international. muter trains.
is a mysterious imam, Ab- (AP Photo) A photocopy of his ID was
delbaki Es Satty, who went on condition of anonym- Four days after their return, plete with a detonator, found along with docu-
from trafficking people and ity because he was not al- on Aug. 16, Es Satty himself was found along with Es ments of 17 other people in
drugs to secretly preach- lowed to discuss the ongo- made a fatal mistake in his Satty’s remains. A survivor the home of a Moroccan-
ing jihad to young Muslims ing probe told The Associ- bomb-making workshop, of the blast said the imam born businessman accused
in northeastern Spain. ated Press the Spanish cell frustrating the group’s initial planned to blow himself of providing shelter and
He was never directly communicated only face- plan to strike Barcelona’s up and take as many vic- logistical help to Islamic
linked to extremism or re- to-face, never online, even tourism and religious monu- tims as possible with him. extremists, according to
cruiting, but he appeared in encrypted programs ments. Near his battered wallet court documents obtained
on authorities’ radar more such as Telegram. The attacks were carried were discount airline tickets by the AP. Both Es Sattys
than once, spending nine The weekend before the out the following day by Es to Belgium. It wasn’t clear came under investigation,
months in an anti-radical- attacks, several of them Satty’s recruits, aged 17 to what he planned to do and the imam’s cellphone
ization program in prison. made the nine-hour drive 28. One rammed a van into next. was tapped for at least a
A short time after being to the Paris suburb of Mala- Barcelona’s busy Las Ram- Es Satty’s first run-in with month in a related probe
released, he managed to koff for an overnight stay. blas boulevard. Hours later authorities in Spain dates into document forgery.
pull together a tightly knit They bought a camera five of them armed with to 2002, when he was ar- While jailed in the same
group of as many as nine before leaving again in an knives, an axe and fake ex- rested in the northern Af- prison as one of the Ma-
men — three sets of broth- Audi A3. Investigators in plosive belts drove the Audi rica enclave of Ceuta for drid train bombers, Es Satty
ers and their childhood both countries are focusing onto a beach promenade using a forged passport to took part in a program for
friends, all willing to die for on what the group needed in Cambrils, south along the smuggle in a fellow Moroc- inmates “vulnerable for
his cause and keep the in France that they couldn’t Mediterranean coast from can. The judge gave him a recruitment or radicaliza-
plot secret. learn online, from each Barcelona. six-month suspended pris- tion,” Spain’s Interior Minis-
In addition to the 16 dead, other — or their imam. A real explosives belt, com- on sentence. Because he try told the AP. q
more than 120 people
were injured in the attacks,
which were claimed by the France: Wedding guest charged in missing girl case
Islamic State group. Span-
ish authorities say the cell PARIS (AP) — French au- said the man denied any had played inside his cli- on Aug. 27 at the village
has been fully dismantled, thorities have handed pre- wrongdoing but his expla- ent’s vehicle with another hall in Pont-de-Beauvoisin,
its members dead or un- liminary kidnapping charg- nation “did not convince child. 85 kilometers (53 miles)
der arrest, but they are still es to a 34-year-old man in investigation judges,” who “His dogs were mentioned from Lyon in southeastern
working to piece together the case of a 9-year-old charged him with “kidnap- during the party so the chil- France.
how exactly the attacks girl who went missing from ping, illegal confinement or dren, as they were playing Police have questioned
coalesced. a wedding celebration in arbitrary detention of a mi- outside, came to him and more than 200 potential
“It wasn’t an attack France. nor of less than 15 years.” asked to see his dogs in his witnesses and hundreds
planned by the central Grenoble prosecutor’s of- Several French media re- car,” Meraud said. of volunteers have helped
command of Daesh,” fice said late Sunday that ported that DNA traces of “He opened the door, searching the area, but the
Spanish Interior Minister the man attended the the girl were found in the turned over the passen- girl was still missing on Mon-
Juan Ignacio Zoido recent- same wedding last month. suspect’s car. ger front seat, the children day morning.
ly said, using another name The suspect was one of Bernard Meraud, the law- went on the back seat, Police dogs found the girl’s
for the IS group in an inter- two men detained then yer representing the sus- looked inside the boot and scent but lost it in the hall’s
view with the ABC newspa- released last week without pect, told BFMTV chan- came out. That’s it.” parking lot, suggesting she
per. “But it has been guid- charges after being ques- nel that the DNA traces of The girl, identified as Maelys may have been forced
ed from overseas.” tioned. the girl were found only De Araujo by Grenoble into a vehicle or gotten
A Spanish official speaking The prosecutor’s office because the missing child prosecutors, was last seen into one voluntarily.q