MADRID (AP) – An extremist cell in northeastern Spain was preparing bombs for an imam who planned to blow himself up at a Barcelona monument, a key suspect in the attacks that killed 15 people in northeastern Spain told a judge Tuesday, according to a judicial official.
The suspect, Mohamed Houli Chemlal, 21, was one of four men brought before Spain’s National Court in Madrid on Tuesday to testify about the Islamic extremist cell that attacked pedestrians in Barcelona and the nearby seaside town of Cambrils last week.
National Court Judge Fernando Andreu is scheduled to rule later Tuesday on the prosecutor’s request to send the four to jail without bail for preliminary accusations of being part of a terrorist organization, homicide, causing havoc and dealing with explosives.
A Spanish judicial official says Houli Chemlal and suspect Driss Oukabir, 28, identified the imam, Abdelbaki Es Satty, as the ideologist of the 12-man cell.
Oukabir and the other two surviving suspects who testified Tuesday, Mohamed Aalla and Sahal El Karib, denied being part of the cell, said the court official, who was not authorized to speak about ongoing cases and requested anonymity.