ERC and Junts seek today to focus the Congress investigation into the 2017 attacks on the imam of Ripoll and the CNI

Esquerra Republicana and Junts want the Congressional commission of inquiry into the jihadist attacks that took place in Barcelona and Cambrils (Tarragona) in August 2017 to focus on the relationship that the then imam of the Barcelona town of Ripoll, Abdelbaki Es Satty, as well as in the “coordination failures” that he attributes to the Security forces and the Ministry of the Interior in relation to the ‘mastermind’ of the massacre. Es Satty was one of the terrorists who died in the explosion in the house in Alcanar (Barcelona) on August 16, an incident that, according to the sentence handed down after the trial for these events, led the surviving jihadists to improvise with the massive attack that took place on Las Ramblas in Barcelona the next day and in an attack carried out in Cambrils already on the 18th. In total 16 people were murdered. AN IDEA ENCOURAGED BY VILLAREJO It was former commissioner José Manuel Villarejo who encouraged the idea that the CNI could be behind those attacks, to give a “scare” to the Catalan independence government, given that Spanish espionage had maintained contacts with Es Satty while there been in prison. According to his thesis, these attacks would have been a “mistake” of calculation by the CNI, to which he attributed the creation of a possible “fictitious command” to make the Catalan authorities believe that there was a risk and thus they would have to ask the State for protection. , at a time when the independence process was in full swing. The former commissioner assured at the time that everything went out of control when the imam of Ripoll died. The CNI indicated from the first moment that it contacted the imam “following the protocols” when he was serving a sentence in Castellón prison in 2014 for drug trafficking, but stressed that Es Satty was in no way a confidant. THE WORK PLAN IS APPROVED Now both ERC and Junts want Congress to delve into the relationship between the ‘brain’ of the attacks and the intelligence services, as can be seen from the work plans registered by these formations, which have had Europa Press access. Bildu and PNV, for their part, have declined to make proposals. The investigative commission meets this Tuesday in Congress behind closed doors to approve its work plan and will then open a period for the groups to present a list of those appearing they would like to question. Specifically, Esquerra demands to know how long Es Satty’s relationship with the CNI lasted, whether he was paid, and what its purpose was. He also asks to clarify the “correlation of failures in the chain of communication and coordination between the police forces” in relation to his figure and “the actions of the Ministry of the Interior and the control measures” that were applied to him, given that he knew of its links with jihadist movements, a point that Junts also emphasizes, which points to possible state negligence due to the “deficient” application of anti-terrorist legislation those days. Likewise, those of Míriam Nogueras directly advocate reopening the judicial investigation, arguing that the “instruction was deficient” and that there are still “many dark points.” Among others, he cites why Es Satty’s cell phone was not found after the Alcanar explosion, who used it after it and why he was presumed dead before having the DNA evidence, evidence that, in his opinion, They did not meet European standards. ERC also emphasizes this point. DECLASSIFY DOCUMENTS AND CLARIFY IF THERE WAS STATE NEGLIGENCE In addition, those of Míriam Nogueras request that all documents from the intelligence services related to this matter be declassified and that the “possible responsibility of the State in the purchase of explosive precursors” that they acquired be investigated. the terrorists. It was found that they had accumulated 500 kilos in the house in Alcanar that they had as a base of operations. On the other hand, ERC proposes that the commission serve to propose appropriate measures for the prevention and control of informants from the police or intelligence services, measures of integration to avoid the effects of the capillarization of hate speech and religious extremism among the various population communities and to establish what were the political and any other responsibilities in the August attacks in Barcelona and Cambrils. For their part, the PSOE and Sumar have jointly registered a very aseptic work plan proposal, in which they do not detail what issues the commissioners should focus their investigations on and limit themselves to raising merely methodological issues.