The alleged jihadist who was arrested in 2019 after swearing allegiance to Daesh, and who was feared to be planning to «blow himself up» at the Manilva fair, has accepted this Thursday a sentence of two and a half years for the offence of passive terrorist indoctrination.
Before the trial against him began at the Audiencia Nacional, the defendant, Mohamed Louarti, of Moroccan origin, reached an agreement with the Public Prosecutor’s Office to accept that sentence in exchange for admitting the facts for which he was due to stand trial.
The prosecutor was initially seeking 8 years in prison for him for terrorist membership, or an alternative sentence of 6 years for terrorist indoctrination or 4 years for passive indoctrination. He has been convicted of the latter offence after the prosecutor reduced the sentence sought to two and a half years.
According to the prosecutor’s provisional conclusions, the defendant recorded a video in August 2018 at the Manilva fairground, where he lived, in which he told his «cousin Moshin», to whom he sent it via WhatsApp: «Listen Mohsin, we are going to blow up here, God willing». «By Allah, I will blow myself up», he told him months later.
In addition, on 4 January 2019 he published on his Facebook profile, «Anwar Andalusí», an oath of allegiance to Daesh, «a condition understood as a prior step to reaching paradise through martyrdom», which led to his arrest eleven days later.
On that same profile, which he opened after the jihadist attacks in Catalonia on 17 August 2017, he made several posts, including one, a day before his arrest, in which he said «amen» to a comment from a profile called Abu Osama El Magrebí.
The latter said in Arabic: «To our Sheikh Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi, we say, you have in Morocco an army whose size only God knows. Die, enemies of God».
According to the prosecutor, the defendant «systematically» searched for jihadist content and for information on how to navigate the deep web in order to acquire firearms such as Kalashnikovs, and even showed interest in a compressed-air carbine.
Between 4 December 2018 and 14 January 2019, he watched 36 videos published by Daesh’s propaganda apparatus.
«These are videos calling for violent jihad, whether in the land of the Caliphate or, for those unable to travel (…) they induce the commission of attacks in Europe and speak of the need to die as a martyr in order to reach paradise», the Public Prosecutor’s Office stated.
Shortly before his arrest, it added, the chat «Mafia de Bandiban» came to light. Its name refers to a neighbourhood in the city of Fnideq (Morocco), where the defendant is originally from, and in it he communicated with four other men living there.
In it, they went as far as justifying attacks such as the murder of two tourists in Morocco, argued for the need to go unnoticed in their countries of residence to avoid being discovered, and showed interest in a medication that, when mixed with hashish, causes overexcitement and aggression, similar to the so-called «jihadists’ drug, or captagon», whose use is reported among Islamic State fighters in conflict zones.
Leer esta noticia en español →
