Judge frees one of four men held over Barcelona terror

In a family home in the town of Ripoll, in northern Spain, Brahim Aallaa sits with his seven-year-old son and contemplates the loss of his family.

Last week two of his sons – Youssef and Said – were killed taking part in the worst terror attack in Spain for 13 years.

Youssef is believed to have been killed in a bomb factory explosion, while Said was shot dead by police in Cambrils.

The town of Ripoll, north of Barcelona, has a population of around 10,000, of which around 10 per cent are immigrants. The Barcelona terror attackers hailed from here

A third son, Mohammed, was arrested after it was revealed his car was used in the Cambrils attack, and is now facing charges of terrorist murder. 

‘They are dead because an imam taught them distorted Islam,’ said the seven-year-old boy’s father Brahim Aallaa.

‘They couldn’t even speak Arab. They spoke Catalan, Spanish, Berber,’ the Moroccan textile factory worker told AFP.

‘The other son will go to prison because he lent his car to his brother.’ 

Most of the 12 men in the alleged terror cell grew up or lived in the town of around 10,000 inhabitants at the foot of the Pyrenees.

Despite their horror over the carnage, the people of Ripoll affectionately describe the youths as ‘the kids’ and say they were ‘completely integrated’ into the town, whose population is about five percent Moroccan.  

Known for its monastery founded in the 9th century, Ripoll fiercely champions its Catalan identity, with ‘yes’ flags for regional independence fluttering on several balconies.

Tucked under the tree-lined mountains about 90 kilometres north of Barcelona, the village had no clue that the insidious tendrils of jihadism had crept up on it.

Nuria Perpinya said her ‘blood freezes over’ when she looks at charts in the press listing the suspects.

Brothers Said and Youssef Aallaa died during the Barcelona terror attack, while a third sibling, Mohammed, has been arrested

‘These are terrorists but it makes my heart break. It’s a contradictory feeling,’ said the social worker, 36. ‘Some are my children, I taught them addition and division.’

Until 2015, Perpinya worked for a regional programme battling exclusion and admits having ‘good memories of these normal boys, who were totally integrated’.

Nevertheless, she acknowledged that some of them ‘didn’t have much personality but were most vulnerable’. 

In a small but neat building at the entrance of Ripoll, Moussa Oubakir, 17, lived with his mother.

He is one of five siblings, including an older brother, Driss, detained on suspicion he was part of the terror cell.

‘People talking about Moussa would never use a negative word to describe him. He is considerate, well brought up, joyful,’ said the deputy mayor in charge of integration, Maria Dolors Vilalta.

But on the social network Kiwi, where he was actively participating two years ago, Moussa sent two flirty messages, punctuated by a chilling one in which he vowed to ‘kill infidels and spare only Muslims who practise their religion’.

In the early hours of Friday, he was gunned down by police in Cambrils.

Houssaine Abouyaaqoub, also known as ‘Houssa’, also a minor, was killed at the same time.

On Monday, Houssa’s big brother Younes Abouyaaqoub, 22, was gunned down by police after a massive manhunt for the Moroccan suspected of the Las Ramblas rampage and who went on to stab to death a man while hijacking his car to get away.

Brothers Mohammed and Omar Hychami were also shot dead during the terror attack

‘Houssa and Younes were very good neighbours,’ said Perpinya.

Tour guide Cesar Garcia, 53, whose son went to school with the younger brother, agreed.

‘Houssa was a bright and responsible boy. You wouldn’t be worried if you knew your son was heading out for a party with him,’ he told AFP.

Bucking the pattern of often disenfranchised youths who have a record of petty crime before turning to bigger assaults, the Ripoli boys came neither from poor nor marginalised families in a town where there are no ghettos.

Among their fathers, ‘most are forestry workers, others have jobs in the metallurgy industry,’ said Vilalta.

And at least two of the older young men have a job in the textile or metal industries, according to those who know them.

‘There has never been any problems on integration’ in Ripoll, said mayor Jordi Munell.

‘Some (of the suspects) had jobs, cars, mobile phones, computers, plans for their future.’ 

Brahim Aallaa said that ‘during Ramadan, they (his sons) said they were out praying with the imam all day and night’.

‘After that, Youssef changed. He took his brother’s car and left, saying he was looking for work.’

Three pairs and a trio of brothers were part of the cell, the younger siblings likely following their big brothers.

Investigators had focused on Abdelbaki Es Satty, an imam in Ripoll accused of recruiting and brainwashing the youngsters.

Satty, a Moroccan who arrived in Ripoll in 2015, was killed Wednesday in the Alcanar blast.

Ripoll is only now learning details about the imam’s life, including his imprisonment from 2010 to 2014 for drug trafficking.

But worshippers in the local mosque insist he preached only the Koran there, nothing more.

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