ABDELBAKI ES SATTY: IMAM AND ALLEGED BRAIN BEHIND TERROR CELL GOT OUT OF JAIL IN 2012
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http://www.20minutos.es/noticia/311...iman-ripoll-supuesto-cerebro-celula-cataluna/
According to sources close to the operation, this individual, 45 years old, is a radical Salafist and, given his age and profile, he may have acted as leader of the group.
Since the imam reported that he left the country initially no one had met him, but his roommate claims that he saw him on Tuesday.
He has not yet been located, so it is also investigated if his is the second body found among the debris of the house of Alcanar.
He was in jail for issues related to immigration law. The imam had contacts with detainees of 11-M [Madrid Train Attack of March 11, 2004], according to El País.
The imam of Ripoll who is being investigated for the attacks in Catalonia, Abdelbaki Es Satty, practiced until last June, when he announced that he was going to Morocco for three months on vacation. Yet the person with whom he shared the apartment, Nourden Elhaji, last saw him on Tuesday.
According to sources close to the operation, this 45-year-old individual is a radical Salafist and, by age and profile, could have acted as leader of the terrorist group, made up of 12 people, five of whom were killed in the attack in Cambrils. Abdelbaki Es Satty preached to the Islamic community Annur of this town in which the bulk of the terrorist cell resided, and its secretary, Hammou Minhaj, explained that since the imam announced that he left the country initially nobody had crossed paths with him
However, his roommate claims that he saw him last Tuesday and, in any case, he and Minhaj insist that he is a "very normal" person, although the latter points out that his character is "a bit shy, a little closed". The president of the community in which Abdelbaki Es Satty was practicing as a imam since it opened earlier this year, Ali Yasine, has reported that he was chosen because it is "very difficult to find a imam in this area and he was available." Abdelbaki Es Satty had already been religious leader of another muslim group of Ripoll, composed by forty people, during seven months of 2015, until he decided to leave it for reasons that are not known.
Three years prior to this, in January 2012, the Imam was released from prison for immigration-related issues, according to sources close to the investigation. In addition, Es Satty is linked with detainees in the 11-M case, he might have had contacts with them, according to a reporter from El País. Both the president and the secretary of Annur have insisted that Abdelbaki Es Satty was a person within the usual parameters and that "people were satisfied with him."
Since communicating that he was leaving on holiday for three months in Morocco, this community continued its usual activity without a imam and its members are sharing the management of the mosque. In Annur they have also confirmed that some of the young people accused as alleged perpetrators of the attack were sometimes seen around the mosque, but had not appeared for some time. Nourden Elhaji, his roommate, said that Abdelbaki Es Satty was originally from Tetouan (Morocco) and is about 45 years old.
"He was a normal person," insisted this witness, who has resided in the same home as Satty during the last three months. As for the young men considerd perpetrators of the attacks in Barcelona and Cambrils , Elhaji has confessed to having seen them once in Ripoll, but never in the apartment shared with the imam.
The community Annur has wanted to condemn the events that occurred last Thursday through a manifesto that hung at the entrance of the mosque, where you can read their total "commitment in the fight against any type of terrorism" and their desire that "those responsible will be arrested and brought to justice as soon as possible."
The Mossos d'Esquadra try to determine if the imam of Ripoll has connections with the terrorist cell. Abdelbaki Es Satty has not yet been located, so it is also investigated if he is the second deceased found among the debris of the house of Alcanar that exploded Wednesday night, when the cell prepared explosives for an attack with bomb-filled vans. The Mossos have searched for several hours this Saturday morning the apartment of the imam in Ripoll in search of clues and DNA tests to find out if he could be one of the dead in the explosion of the house of Alcanar (Tarragona) Wednesday. The Mossos d'Esquadra carried out further controlled detonations between the debris of the group's house on Saturday. In that house, the Mossos found a hundred butane cylinders and material used by the Islamic State (EI) for preparing their usual explosives such as acetylene and other specific substances.
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