Spain’s Supreme Court on Monday ordered the pretrial detention of a suspect who carried out knife attacks on two churches in southern Spain last week, describing his actions as a “targeted jihadist attack.”
Moroccan national Yassin Ganja, 25, faces charges of “aggravated murder with terrorist intent” and multiple counts of grievous bodily harm after killing a sacristan and wounding four others in the city of Algeciras on January 25, the government said. High Court. In a sentence. Ganja has been in custody since his arrest, the first attack by Islamist militants in Spain since 2017, which killed 16 people and injured nearly 200.
If convicted, the court said, the sentence could be life in prison. “The evidence gathered supports the classification of Yasin Ganja’s actions as a jihadist attack against priests who profess the faith of the Catholic Church and against Muslims who do not follow the commands of the Koran,” the court said.
According to the court, one of Ganja’s victims was a Moroccan citizen whom it considered an “infidel” and believed to be a Muslim convert, although the court did not provide further details. It also concluded that the suspect may have acted alone, as Ganja told both the court and the police that he had not sworn allegiance to any militant group.
The court also said that police intelligence was not aware of Ganja’s motive before the attack. According to the police report sent to the court, he “was not involved in any altercation or incident that could lead to any police action.”
Investigators described Ganja as unstable and police said Monday they believe he went through a rapid process of self-radicalization in a short period of time. Police questioned people they knew who said there was a total change in attitude toward marijuana in the month or month and a half before the attack. Until then, he had led a “normal” life, said some who knew him.
A heavy hashish drinker and smoker, Ganja at one point changed his habits and began listening to Quran recordings on his mobile phone, residents said.
(This story has not been edited by DevDiscourse staff and is automatically generated from a syndicated feed.)
