Six years have passed since the attacks in Barcelona and Cambrils (Tarragona) on August 17, 2017

The Uavat announced its closure on May 5 due to "the lack of support" from the governments

   BARCELONA, 17 Ago. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The attacks of August 17, 2017 in Barcelona and Cambrils (Tarragona) are six years old this Thursday, with the case already judged in the National Court and a sentence that convicted three members of the jihadist cell that organized them.

The attacks caused 16 deaths, the sentence recognizes 350 victims of the events for physical injuries or psychological damage, and the trial lasted for 32 sessions between November 2020 and February 2021.

The National Court imposed sentences of 53, 46 and 8 years in prison on Mohamed Houli Chemlal, Driss Oukabir and Said Ben Iazza, but after an appeal lowered the highest sentences by 10 years each, having already set a maximum limit for compliance with 20 years in prison.

None of the defendants has been sentenced for the 16 murders on La Rambla in Barcelona and the Cambrils promenade -- committed by other members of the cell who died during the attacks and in the explosion in Alcanar (Tarragona) the day before the attacks--, despite the fact that the private and popular accusations requested it, because the court considers that they did not participate or were aware of these attacks.

Chemlal and Oukabir were convicted of the crimes of belonging to a terrorist organization, possession, deposit and manufacture of terrorist explosives, and attempted terrorist havoc, in addition to 29 crimes of serious negligence.

The reduction in sentences responds to the fact that the court considered that Houli Chemlal and Oukabir did not have a real intent to kill with the second explosion of Alcanar.

On the night of August 16, 2017, the explosion in a house in Alcanar - where the cell prepared the attacks and kept a hundred butane cylinders, explosive precursors, shrapnel, homemade grenades and a bomb belt - precipitated the attacks. impromptu the next day.

A few minutes before 5:00 p.m. on Thursday, August 17, Younes Abouyaaqoub, at the wheel of a van, climbed onto the pedestrian platform of La Rambla driving in a zigzag pattern to run over pedestrians from Plaza Catalunya to the height of the Liceu, murdering 14 people.

A few hours later, at one in the morning on August 18, in Cambrils, five other members of the cell ran over six people, including a Mossos d'Esquadra agent, killing a woman.

Abouyaaqoub was killed by the Mossos four days later after a chase against the clock --in which he killed victim 16-- when he was discovered in a field in Subirats (Barcelona), while the perpetrators of the attack in Cambrils were killed in their escape moments after the attack.

On May 5 of this year, Robert Manrique, adviser to the Care and Assessment Unit for People Affected by Terrorism (Uavat), announced the closure of the unit due to "lack of support" from the governments.

Manrique has assured Europa Press that with the closure they were asking the Generalitat to draw up a care protocol for victims in order to care for them after an attack and, among other things, to re-create the Office of Care for Victims of Terrorism, which It opened in Barcelona in 2010, although "it was closed after a year due to cuts".

He criticizes that, after the attacks of August 17, 2017, the Government created an office from August 22 to 29: "This office was only open for a week. It is very impractical and very little empathetic."

Regarding the Generalitat, he has said that it has the "obligation" to inform the victims of terrorist attacks of their rights, and has explained that the Government made a list of the injured, but that they have not been informed of anything, in his words .

On the contrary, he has denied that the closure of the Uavat leaves the victims "helpless", and has indicated that, from the Association 11-M Affected by Terrorism, they will continue to care for them.