MADRID (AP) – Spain’s prime minister on Friday dismissed criticism about the lack of coordination between Spanish national authorities and those in the widely self-governed Catalonia region during the attacks by an Islamic extremist cell that killed 15 people last week.
The probe into the Aug. 17-18 attacks in Barcelona and Cambrils has suggested that the alleged cell leader’s ties to other jihadists and his criminal record for drug trafficking may have been missed because Catalan regional police didn’t have information that was in the hands of central authorities.
A judge had granted permission for police investigators to tap Abdelbaki Es Satty’s mobile phone line in a 2005 investigation into an Al-Qaeda cell in northeastern Spain, newspaper ABC reported Friday, publishing leaked court documents, but the conversations didn’t provide enough evidence to indict him.
Other concerns have been raised by police officers’ unions, who have denounced a decision by pro-independence regional politicians to show a “self-sufficient” Catalonia and exclude other experts in the initial stages of the investigation into the attacks.
The Catalan government has denied the accusations.