The jihadist detained in Melilla was convicted in 2018 of recruiting fighters for the Islamic State and Al Qaeda

MADRID/MELILLA, Oct. 23 (EUROPA PRESS) -

The person detained this Monday by the Police in Melilla is Mustafá Maya Amaya, released a few months ago after being convicted by the National Court in 2018 for being the leader of a jihadist cell dedicated to recruiting and sending fighters from Mali, Syria or Libya to their integration into terrorist organizations such as the Islamic State (Daesh) and Al Qaeda, as sources from the investigation have informed Europa Press.

A spokesperson for the Higher Police Headquarters in Melilla confirmed this Monday morning that there had been an arrest of a resident of this Spanish city in an operation by the General Information Commissariat of the National Police against jihadist terrorism, in an investigation which is still open. He is being investigated for crimes of indoctrination and glorification of terrorism, according to police sources.

The detainee is the Spaniard of Belgian origin Mustafá Maya Amaya, a convert to Islam of gypsy descent and confined to a wheelchair, as confirmed by the aforementioned sources of the investigation. After his first arrest, the National Police described him as the "biggest jihadist recruiter", an activity that dates back to at least 2012.

The Third Section of the Criminal Chamber handed down a sentence in which Maya Amaya was sentenced to eight years in prison for the crime of belonging to a terrorist organization as promoter and director. Four other members were sentenced to six years in prison for these same crimes.

The mitigating circumstance of confession was applied to all of them, since they recognized the facts during the trial. They reached an agreement in accordance with the Prosecutor's Office, which initially requested between eight and 14 years in prison.

During the oral hearing, held between December 11 and 13, 2017, Maya Amaya himself confirmed that he gave "information" through social networks to an "exaggerated" number of people who "wanted to work, who wanted to find a life" or who wanted to "learn the Koran" and then do jihad. He pointed out that he did not know specifically which jihadist groups they were going to be integrated into.

The ruling, dated January 18, 2018, highlighted that it is "one of the largest networks for recruiting and sending radicals to join terrorist organizations of a jihadist nature, inserted in the movement and ideology of 'jihad.'" global". A network that, according to the Court, helped at least thirty people arrive from Mali, Syria or Libya to join Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), the Islamic State or Jabaht Al Nusra.

This is the second anti-jihadist operation with detainees by the Police since the Ministry of the Interior ordered complementary security measures last Tuesday, within the alert level 4 out of 5, due to the context of escalating tension derived from the conflict between Israel and Hamas.

Last Friday, the National Police reported another operation by the General Information Commissariat with four young people arrested for crimes of jihadism residing in the towns of Huetor-Tajar (Granada), Cubelles (Barcelona) and Madrid.

The agents detected a "turning point" when they detected two of them, a married couple who had the authorization of the ringleader, who called himself 'Caliph', who had exponentially increased their level of radicalization, since they recorded a video claiming " spill blood to recover Al Andalus and restore the Caliphate". The judge of the National Court issued a prison order for the three.

On Friday afternoon, the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, called all parliamentary groups to a meeting to discuss the current anti-terrorist alert level of 4 out of 5, with complementary security measures, due to the context of growing tension. due to the conflict between Israel and Hamas.

The minister, who asked for a sense of State and not to fall into excessive alarmism, claimed to trust in the daily work carried out by the State Security Forces and Bodies, and reiterated that it was "dangerous" to mix terrorism and irregular immigration.

In Melilla, the last anti-terrorist operation dates back to October 6, 2022 with the arrest of ten people for their alleged participation in the crimes of belonging to a terrorist group, glorification, indoctrination and terrorist self-training.

Within the framework of this operation, the National Police arrested one more person in Granada and the Moroccan DGST simultaneously carried out two more arrests in its country. According to investigators, the detainees shared the tenets of the terrorist organization DAESH and carried out indoctrination work on third parties, mainly young people.