They acquit an imam from San Sebastian accused of jihadist recruitment and financing

The Criminal Chamber indicates that the prosecution's accusations were based on "mere suspicions"

MADRID, 6 Ago. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The National Court has acquitted of the crimes of terrorist indoctrination and financing of terrorism the imam of the Herrera mosque --in San Sebastián (Guipuzcoa)-- and a second defendant, understanding that it has not been proven that he captured third parties to train them in carrying out violent jihadist actions.

Both were tried in May, and the Prosecutor's Office in its brief of provisional conclusions maintained that they had carried out a "massive" activity of recruitment, propaganda and indoctrination in favor of terrorist organizations such as DAESH, Al Qaeda and Hamas, for at least eight years. and on young Moroccans, taking advantage of their position as leaders of the Islamic community in the city.

The Public Ministry argued that the imam used his position in the mosque and then his position as leader of the Islamic Cultural Association ASSAFWA to reach a "large number of faithful", including children, whom he sought to capture through social networks or on a personal level.

But the Third Section of the Criminal Chamber explains in its sentence, to which Europa Press has had access, that the then imam denied in the trial having carried out the imputed criminal conduct, that his work in the association "was merely cultural" , and that his trips to France, far from criminal purposes such as raising money for jihad, were aimed at raising money for the center's cultural activity.

The court notes that these statements were corroborated by relatives of the accused (such as his ex-wife or his son) and by other witnesses, and that the policemen in charge of the economic expertise indicated that they did not know the destination of the money handled by the then imam and that they did not locate either "significant extractions of money for abroad".

"In short, in the opinion of the Court, it has not been sufficiently proven in plenary, beyond mere suspicions, that this defendant developed an important and relevant criminal act in the period of time in question, either by indoctrinating third parties, close to him and strangers, with the purpose of capturing, preparing or training them to carry out violent actions of Islamic terrorism; or that they were financing terrorists or terrorist organizations, "says the Chamber.

In the same way, the court notes that in the case of the second of the defendants, Annas E., it has not been proven that he was guilty of the crime of passive indoctrination and that only "mere suspicions" have been brought forward.