The trial is due to begin on Tuesday of three men accused of involvement in the 2017 terrorist attacks in Spain, which killed 16 people.
On August 17th, 2017, a van swerved off the road in central Barcelona on to the Ramblas boulevard, where it ploughed into pedestrians, killing 14 people and injuring dozens more. The driver, 22-year-old Moroccan national Younes Abouyaaqoub, then stabbed another man to death before fleeing in another vehicle.
Later that day, five of his associates carried out a similar rampage in the coastal town of Cambrils, also in Catalonia, stabbing one woman to death and injuring several more. All six assailants were eventually shot dead by police.
The three men now going on trial are alleged to have links of various kinds to the Islamist terrorist cell. The prosecutor in the case is calling for a 41-year jail sentence for Mohamed Houli Chelal, a 36-year sentence for Driss Oukabir and eight years for Said Ben Iazza.
Chelal survived an explosion in a house in the town of Alcanar, the day before the attacks took place. The property is believed to have been the headquarters of the cell and the blast to have been caused by explosives which were stored there. An imam, Abdelbaki Es Satty, who police believe was the terrorists' leader, was killed along with another man.
Majot bomb attack
According to investigators, the cell’s members had been planning a major bomb attack in Barcelona with the Sagrada Familia basilica a possible target. But the Alcanar explosion prompted the survivors to improvise the Ramblas and Cambrils attacks instead.
Oukabir is linked to the group because he rented the van used by Abouyaaqoub, although he is believed to have decided not to take part in the plan at the last moment. The third defendant, Ben Iazza, is accused of collaborating with a terrorist group, having lent them a vehicle and his ID.
The trial, which will take place in the national court in Madrid, is expected to last until mid-December.
“I want my son’s death to serve a purpose,” Javier Martínez, the father of Xavi, a three-year-old boy killed in the Barcelona van attack, told Spanish media ahead of the trial.
“I’m not going to get my son back, even if I won the case and I were given millions of euros,” he added. “I’m interested in the truth and in ensuring we protect ourselves better.”
Private plaintiffs
Mr Martínez is one of several dozen private plaintiffs who accuse the defendants of direct responsibility for the attacks and therefore are demanding stiffer jail sentences than those demanded by the public prosecutor.
The terrorist attacks came during a wave of political commotion in Catalonia due to the region’s efforts to secede from Spain. Those tensions fuelled conspiracy theories surrounding the case, particularly after it emerged that the Spanish police had a file on the imam Es Satty.
No hard evidence has emerged that the security forces knew details of the planned attack. Nonetheless, Mr Martínez and others have called for an investigation into the intelligence service’s handling of the case.
