3 jailed for aiding 2017 Barcelona terror attacks

Spain's High Court on Thursday handed jail terms of between eight and 53 years to three men who helped the jihadists behind the 2017 Barcelona attacks that killed 16 people, reported Xinhua.

Mohamed Houli Chemlal was sentenced to 53 years and six months, while Driss Oukabir received a sentence of 46 years for crimes such as involvement in a terrorist organization; possession and manufacture of explosive and flammable substances or devices; and causing injury.

They have also been prohibited from visiting the town of Alcanar (south of Barcelona), where they had prepared the terrorist attack, for ten years after their release from jail.

A third man, Said Ben Iazza, was given an eight-year jail term for collaborating with a terrorist organization, although he was acquitted of belonging to a terrorist organization; manufacture and possession of explosives for terrorism purposes; and conspiracy to commit terrorist attacks.

On Aug. 17, 2017, Younes Abouyaaqoub drove a van at high speed down Barcelona's famous tourist street Las Ramblas, killing 14 people. He later killed another person and escaped before being hunted down and shot dead by the police four days later.

Other members of the terrorist cell killed another person in Cambrils, a nearby town, in the early hours of Aug. 18 before five of them were shot and killed by the police. Chemlal was in hospital at that time as he got injured when the explosives manufactured by the group exploded at the house they had rented in Alcanar on Aug. 16.

This led Abouyaaqoub to carry out the van attack on Las Ramblas and it later emerged that the jihadist cell had planned to plant their home-made bombs at key sites in Barcelona, including at the Sagrada Familia church and FC Barcelona's Camp Nou stadium.