The mother of the alleged jihadist from Algeciras warned her sister after detecting a "significant change" in her attitude

A neighbor explained that he had previously threatened a friend of his: "Either you leave the house or I cut your throat"

MADRID, 26 Abr. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The sister of Yassine Kanjaa, the alleged jihadist who led an attack in Algeciras last January that resulted in the death of a sacristan and several injuries, assured the National Police that their mother warned her about her brother after detecting "a significant change" in his attitude.

This is clear from his voluntary statement before the National Police agents one day after the events and which is included in the summary of the case, to which Europa Press has had access.

In it, the sister of the alleged attacker assured that during the time she lived with Yassine she did not hear any conversation regarding the attack. In addition, she assured that she had not seen any violent act of Yassine himself against friends or neighbors.

His sister, who acknowledged that she did not know whether or not Yassine complied with her Muslim precepts, assured that their mother told her that she had "detected a significant change" in her attitude. She herself did not know how to define what was happening to her, but she did warn him that "he did not speak to her as usual."

In the summary itself there is also the voluntary statement of one of Kanjaa's residents, who warned about the "big change" suffered by Yassine two months before the attack.

Before the agents, the neighbor explained that he came to see through the window how he threatened "raising a machete" similar to the one used on the day of the attack "to a friend with whom he had served prison in Morocco." "Either you leave the house or I cut your neck," he would have proffered. After this, the threatened person did not go near the surroundings of the house again "since he knew that he could carry out his threat."

After that incident, one of the roommates would have asked Kanjaa why he had a machete in the house. "It's not your problem. That's for some person who is interfering in my life," he would have snapped.

After these events, the neighbor explained to the agents, "a great change in Kanjaa" could be observed, mainly in his way of dressing. This led to the alleged jihadist being seen "with a beard and wearing a djellaba using a Koran and a rosary of beads that he used as a prayer."

This incident would also have led the friends who "came to see him months ago" to stop visiting him, since "he dedicated himself to advising all people that they had to stop drinking and smoking" because it was "forbidden".

The Kanjaa neighbor told the police that on the same day of the attack his cousin Lehsen saw Yassine "leaving the house with a knife in his hand while saying in Arabic 'There is no God but Allah, Muhammad is the messenger of Allah' ".

For his part, and in a voluntary statement also made a day after the attack, one of Kanjaa's roommates reported that the alleged jihadist had threatened a mutual friend with his own machete, a "large" weapon.

In addition, the roommate defined Kanjaa as "very impulsive and frequently angry", making it clear that he did not believe that a third person had urged him to carry out the attack.

The agents also took a statement one day after the attack on a person who slept sporadically in Kanjaa's apartment, whom he had known since childhood. In his statement, he recounted how he spent the night before the attack.

Specifically, this witness explained that he did not notice anything noteworthy in Yassine's attitude, simply "a certain nervousness but for no apparent reason." That night "they only had dinner, prayed and fell asleep."

Asked by the agents, he acknowledged that he knew that there was "a large black and white machete" at the home. The same, which was "Yassine's property", was stored "under the bed" where the alleged jihadist slept.

Kanjaa himself would have shown the witness the weapon on several occasions. However, when he asked what he had the knife for, Kanjaa urged him to stay out of his business.