National Police arrest individual in Barcelona for glorification and support for Jihadi terrorist groups

The investigation began in October 2016, after detecting on the social network Facebook a profile administered by the individual arrested on Wednesday, 12 July, through which he posted constant publications glorifying and supporting Jihadi terrorist groups, designed to praise attacks by DAESH, Al Qaeda and other groups such as The Martyrs of Hazedine Al Quasam. As well as surveillance of his activities on the social media, the National Police maintained extensive control over his activities for several months, observing that he was at an advanced stage of Islamist radicalisation.

The detainee came from one of the Palestinian refugee camps in the Lebanon, and had declared on numerous occasions a deep-seated hatred of Israel, of the Shiite population and towards Spain and other Western countries, while fervently supporting the presence of Jihadi organisations such as DAESH at Lebanese refugee camps.

Furthermore, he was considered to be a firm supporter of the radical Salafist cleric Khaled Al-Rashed, who is currently in prison in Saudi Arabia for having made constant calls to Muslims from across the world to join the Jihad in Iraq, and also calling on Arab countries to declare war on the West.

Following his arrest, the National Police carried out several searches of his home. Noteworthy among the effects seized are the following:

• 2 laptop computers
• 1 CPU
• 4 hard drives
• 4 mobile phones
• Several DVDs, pen drives, SIM cards and micro SD cards
• Diaries and documentation
• 1,600 euros in cash

This operation was carried out under the supervision of Central Investigation Court number 5 and coordinated by the Public Prosecutor's Office of the National High Court.

Since 26 June 2015, the year in which the Ministry of Home Affairs raised the Counter-Terrorism Alert Level to level 4 (Spanish acronym: NAA-4), the law enforcement agencies have arrested a total of 185 Jihadist terrorists in operations carried out in Spain and abroad and a total of 230 since the start of 2015.

The Ministry of Home Affairs sends out a reminder that, through the initiative STOP RADICALISMOS, citizens can collaborate through a series of channels open to them so that, in a confidential and secure manner, they can notify the State law enforcement agencies of possible cases of radicalisation in their vicinity through the web page www.stop-radicalismos.es, the mobile phone app for citizens security alerts 'Alertcops' and the free hotline 900 822 066.