Acquitted for lack of evidence a man accused of a crime of terrorist self-indoctrination

The sentence maintains that the data provided by the Prosecutor's Office are "unconnected" and do not allow the defendant to be convicted

MADRID, 3 Ago. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The National High Court has agreed to acquit a man - who had previously been convicted of extolling terrorism - of a crime of self-indoctrination, considering that there is insufficient evidence to show that he was training himself to carry out violent acts.

In a sentence, to which Europa Press has had access, the magistrates of the Criminal Chamber have considered that the story of the Prosecutor's Office "lacks any evidence of evidence." In his opinion, there is no evidence that the accused --"through the search and storage" of information regarding "religious matters", the acquisition of weapons and vehicles and the location of civilian targets-- had trained himself to carry out attacks on the civilian population.

"Where is the realization of this imminent danger? How has the accused been trained to carry out violent acts, attacks with weapons, etc. on the civilian population?"

The Public Ministry defended that the facts investigated constituted a crime of terrorist self-indoctrination and that, in the case of the accused, the aggravating circumstance of recidivism concurred, because he had already been convicted of a crime of glorifying terrorism.

Initially, the Prosecutor's Office requested a sentence of five years in prison with absolute disqualification for eight years, in addition to a four-year probation measure. But in the trial, held on July 18 and 19, he modified his indictment and requested expulsion from the national territory once two-thirds of the sentence had been served, without him being able to return to Spain within a period of five years.

In 14 pages, the court has differed from the conclusions of the Public Prosecutor's Office and has specified that the data provided were "unconnected" and "lacking in themselves the incriminating meaning."

According to the sentence, the accused was held in prison in 2017 after being convicted of a crime of terrorist glorification. The facts that were judged on this occasion were related to an entry and search that was carried out at the defendant's home in March 2021, ten months after being released.

Specifically, the Civil Guard located two mobile phones in his home with videos and images in which magnets appeared with messages about the Koran, as well as videos in which the accused recorded himself reciting parts of the holy book and praising the prophet. . There were also videos showing amputations and people carrying weapons, as well as images of pistols, assault rifles and machetes.

In the framework of the investigations, the Prosecutor's Office also highlighted that the defendant had an application installed on a mobile phone that "reports in real time the influx of people and accessibility of a certain geographical point." It also had five different heavy-duty truck driving simulators and two applications from a van rental company.

The magistrates of the National High Court have concluded that these facts that have been declared proven are not "even by way of hint" constituting the crime of terrorist self-indoctrination "nor of any other criminal figure."

The court has called "powerfully attention" that the Prosecutor's Office has not made reference to the graffiti with "symbology of the DAESH terrorist organization" that in 2018 appeared in the Algeciras Penitentiary Center (Botafuegos), where the defendant was being held , whom the Civil Guard points out as a possible author.

The Criminal Chamber has explained that with the material that the Prosecutor's Office has contributed to the trial, the accused cannot be convicted. "We have not found a phrase, not even (...) a single term that makes the slightest reference to any type of violence, neither of a terrorist nature nor of any other kind," the judges stressed.

Regarding the images of weapons, the court has ensured that they cannot even be considered as constituting a slight indication of terrorist self-indoctrination, "it being impossible to establish any connection between the possession of such images with a specific intention of the defendant to recruit them to commit a crime".