The National Court insists on investigating the author of the Algeciras attack for jihadism

The judge of the National Court Joaquín Gadea, who is investigating the case of the fatal attack in two churches in Algeciras at the beginning of the year, will continue to investigate as an alleged terrorist of a jihadist nature.

Oliver Thansan
Oliver Thansan
04 April 2023 Tuesday 08:27
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The National Court insists on investigating the author of the Algeciras attack for jihadism

The judge of the National Court Joaquín Gadea, who is investigating the case of the fatal attack in two churches in Algeciras at the beginning of the year, will continue to investigate as an alleged terrorist of a jihadist nature. The instructor has closed the door to the request of the defense of the 25-year-old Moroccan young man who wanted the case to pass into the hands of the Cadiz courts.

The reinforcing magistrate of the Central Court of Instruction Number 6 explains in an order of this same Tuesday that "without prejudice to the qualification that is required at the end of the investigation, the facts investigated fit into a crime of murder and two others in the degree of attempted with terrorist purposes". The attack left a sacristan dead and several people injured.

In order to cut off the claims of the defendant's defense, Gadea says he takes into account the identity of the people attacked, the place where the acts were committed, the data provided to the procedure on access to Internet pages and the statements made by the defendant in his statement.

The judge recounts that from what has been investigated so far, it can be deduced that Yassine Kanjaa went to the church of San Isidro in the square of the same name in Algeciras around half past six in the afternoon on January 25, where she began to shout expressions and make references to religious elements in Arabic and Spanish, referring to the Koran and the Bible and pointing to one of the virgins in a defiant attitude.

As he adds, after a brief dialectical dispute, the detainee finally decided to leave the place around a quarter to seven in the afternoon. After leaving the church, Yassine Kanjaa returned to his home, took a large machete, hid it under the black djellaba she was wearing, turned off her mobile phone and put it inside the drawer of her bedside table.

It was around seven in the evening when he was leaving his home, he met the first of his victims, to whom he caused injuries. When Yassine Kanjaa showed her the machete, her victim fled. The judge points out that Yassine Kanjaa himself acknowledged that he attacked him with the intention of killing him because he believes that he is "a Moroccan-Spanish who attends that church because he is a convert and does not practice the authentic religion, Islam."

Continuing the account of the events, at around a quarter past seven in the afternoon Yassine Kanjaa returned to the church of San Isidro yelling in Arabic and headed down the central aisle towards the altar where the priest was with the machete in hand. . The priest tried to escape but when he started to run he tripped and fell, at which point Yassine Kanjaa struck him hard on the back of the neck.

It was around seven twenty-five in the afternoon. Yassine Kanjaa went to another church, that of Nuestra Señora de la Palma, where she went to the sacristan, Diego Valencia, who tried to flee, being chased by the person being investigated who continually hit him with the machete until the victim fell to the ground in the Plaza Alta. "That is the moment in which Yassin deals two fatal blows aimed at the decapitation" of the sacristan, indicates the judge.

"Once he left the deceased on the ground, he began to walk to the west of the square, making a gesture of victory pointing his machete towards the sky until he reached another parish, the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Europe, where he began to knock on the door. with kicks", adds the car.

Failing to achieve his objective, he continued his march down Murillo street towards the Mirador el Muro, where he again made the victory gesture with the machete in hand until he was arrested, always according to the judge's account.