- Title: Four suspected Barcelona attack plotters leave court
- Date: 22nd August 2017
- Summary: MADRID, SPAIN (AUGUST 22, 2017) (REUTERS) TWO VANS COMING OUT OF COURT GARAGE, AUDIO OF SIRENS THIRD VAN COMING OUT OF GARAGE, DRIVES AWAY VARIOUS EXTERIORS OF HIGH COURT BUILDING LIGHTS IN SOME WINDOWS OF THE BUILDING
- Embargoed: 5th September 2017 20:34
- Keywords: Barcelona Las Ramblas van attack Islamic militants court jail attack plotters
- Location: MADRID, SPAIN
- City: MADRID, SPAIN
- Country: Spain
- Topics: Conflicts/War/Peace,International/National Security
- Reuters ID: LVA0016V8P6BR
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text:Four suspects in the Barcelona van attack were driven away from court on Tuesday (August 22) after one of the alleged members of an Islamist cell suspected of carrying out last week's attack told the court that the group had been planning a much bigger strike using explosives, a judicial source said.
The testimony to a closed hearing at Spain's High Court came from Mohamed Houli Chemlal, one of four detained suspects brought to Madrid to testify for the first time in court about the plot.
According to sources close to the investigation only Chemlal confessed to his participation in the attack while the other three arrested men said they were innocent.
Two of the suspects told the court that Abdelbaki Es Satty, the imam in the small town in northeastern Spain where many of the group came from, was the instigator, the judicial source said, adding that the public prosecutor had asked the judge to send all four to jail while investigations continued.
El Mundo newspaper said Chemlal told the court that the group planned to attack architect Antoni Gaudi's landmark Sagrada Familia church and other Barcelona monuments but this could not be immediately confirmed. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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