Ten members of a jihadist cell who were planning attacks in Barcelona have been sentenced to between eight and 12 years in prison by Spain’s High Court, the Audiencia Nacional.

The terrorist cell, which was broken up in 2015 by the Catalan police force, had been planning attacks against landmark sites in the city. Its members also wanted to kidnap someone, dress them in an orange jumpsuit, and execute them in front of a camera, the court found in a ruling released on Tuesday.

A group leader suggested attacking the regional parliament

The court’s criminal division has sentenced three individuals to 12 years in prison for leading the terrorist association, while seven others have received eight-year sentences for participating in the group’s activities. The men, aged 22 through 48, did not have prior criminal records.

The cell, which called itself “Islamic Brotherhood, group for the preaching of jihad,” began taking shape in 2014 at the mosque in Terrassa, in Barcelona province. After a period of training, the defendants created a terrorist cell “with the sole aim of observing and serving the precepts ordered by Daesh (Islamic State),” said the ruling.

According to the court, the group had been planning attacks “against institutions such as the police, banks and Jewish interests in Spain, or to join Daesh.” One of the members traveled to Syria in April 2014 and died in Iraq in May 2015. Three more cell members followed in his footsteps but were arrested on the border between Bulgaria and Turkey.

Following these three arrests, group leader Antonio Sáez, who was working at a barbershop in Barberá del Vallés, suggested perpetrating attacks on Spanish soil. Court records document a meeting that was held in February 2015, when Sáez put forward the idea of attacking the regional parliament.

The police raid, dubbed Operation Charon, broke up the cell after a 13-month-long investigation with help from an officer who infiltrated the group. When Sáez made his suggestion, this undercover officer alerted his superiors about the risk of imminent attacks. Most of the cell members were arrested in April, just days after they were seen taking pictures of landmark sites across the city as part of their plan.

English version by Susana Urra. </s> Ten members of a jihadist cell linked to the Islamic State group (IS) who planned attacks in Barcelona and to film a decapitation were sentenced to 8-12 years in jail on Tuesday.

The defendants included five Moroccans, four Spaniards and a Brazilian, the National Court, which handles terror cases, said in a ruling.

They were "ready to wage an attack against institutions such as the police, banks or Jewish institutions in Spain at any time, or to join the ranks of Daesh," it added, using the Arabic acronym for IS.

The cell was based in Terrassa, not far from Barcelona, the Catalonian capital.
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Last year, another jihadist group killed 16 people in attacks there and on the nearby popular seaside city of Cambrils.

The 10, whose cell was called "Islamic Fraternity, Group for preaching jihad," were sentenced for "belonging to a terrorist organisation'" the court said.

The three leaders of the group were given 12 years in jail while the seven others got eight years.

In March 2015, the main leader of the cell, a Spaniard who had converted to Islam, proposed to kidnap and decapitate an "infidel" whom he had already identified, film the killing and then broadcast the video online before fleeing to Syria.

He had previously proposed that the group "commit an attack against the Catalan parliament, which no one had objected to," according to the court ruling.

"He also justified decapitations and talked about making handmade bombs to commit attacks."

Police found documents calling for jihad at his home and books on European organisations such as the Basque separatist group ETA or Germany's far-left Red Army Faction, the ruling said.

Members of the cell had also gone on a recce in Barcelona, the Catalonian capital, where they took photos of the train station, a luxury seaside hotel, a shopping mall and a police station.

One member went to Syria in April 2014 and died in Fallujah in Iraq the following year.

Three others tried to follow in his footsteps at the end of 2014 but were detained at the border between Bulgaria and Turkey.

According to the interior ministry, close to a third of all arrests for "jihadist terrorism" in Spain were made in Catalonia last year. </s> Ten members of an ISIS-linked cell who planned to launch terror attacks in Barcelona have been jailed in Spain's National Court today.

Five Moroccans, four Spaniards and a Brazilian, calling themselves the 'Islamic Fraternity, Group for preaching jihad' were handed between eight and 12 years in jail.

The group, based in Terrassa, near Barcelona, had planned attacks against 'police, banks or Jewish institutions' and also expressed desires to join ISIS and film a jihadist execution video.

The ten men were sentenced to jail in the National Court for 'belonging to a terrorist organisation', documents said.

The three leaders of the group were given 12 years in jail while the seven others got eight years.

In March 2015, the main leader of the cell, a Spaniard who had converted to Islam, proposed to kidnap and decapitate an 'infidel' whom he had already identified, film the killing and then broadcast the video online before fleeing to Syria.

He had previously proposed that the group 'commit an attack against the Catalan parliament, which no one had objected to,' according to the court ruling.

'He also justified decapitations and talked about making handmade bombs to commit attacks.'

Police found documents calling for jihad at his home and books on European organisations such as the Basque separatist group ETA or Germany's far-left Red Army Faction, the ruling said.

Members of the cell had also gone on a recce in Barcelona, the Catalonian capital, where they took photos of the train station, a luxury seaside hotel, a shopping mall and a police station.

One member went to Syria in April 2014 and died in Fallujah in Iraq the following year.

Three others tried to follow in his footsteps at the end of 2014 but were detained at the border between Bulgaria and Turkey.

According to the interior ministry, close to a third of all arrests for 'jihadist terrorism' in Spain were made in Catalonia last year. </s> Madrid (AFP) - Spain's Supreme Court confirmed 535-year prison sentences for two ETA militants, it said Wednesday, just weeks before the Basque separatist group is expected to announce its dissolution after decades of violence.

Liher Aretxabaleta Rodriguez, 38, and Alaitz Aramendi Jaunarena, 40, were handed the sentence last year by Spain's National Court, which deals with terror cases, but they appealed it.

They were sentenced for 45 "terrorist murder attempts," according to a ruling by the Supreme Court, which rejected their appeal.

They are also accused of having placed a car bomb in the San Blas district of Madrid in May 2005 "with the intention of causing as much damage as possible, accepting the potential death or injuries of people there or nearby".

On May 25, a call was made at 8.45 am to Gara, a Basque daily that has traditionally been ETA's mouthpiece, warning that a van was going to explode three quarters of an hour later in a specified road in Madrid.

The explosion went ahead and caused injuries -- most of them involving people's hearing -- as well as damage to vehicles and buildings.

Aramendi is currently serving an 18-year jail sentence in France for belonging to an illegal organisation with the intention of preparing a terror act.

Aretxabaleta was handed over to Spain by France in 2011.

The jail sentences come as ETA is thought to be preparing its final dissolution, which sources close to the case say will happen "before the summer" and even as early as May.

The group announced a permanent ceasefire in 2011 and last year laid down its arms after waging a violent decades-long fight for independence responsible for the death of at least 829 people.

The northern Basque Country is now gearing up for the dissolution of a group created in 1959 at the height of Francisco Franco's dictatorship, though question marks remain over how to move forward.

Nationalists and peace negotiators want former ETA prisoners to be reintegrated into society as a necessary step for cementing lasting peace, while some victims are first demanding the separatist group apologise for its past deeds. </s> In Egypt, a court sentenced 30 accused up to 25 years in prisons over terrorist charges and their affiliation with the Islamic State terror group.

The Cairo Criminal Court sentenced 18 defendants to 25 years, eight to 15 years and four others to 10 years for joining the terror outfit, possessing explosives and attempting to blow up a church in the seaside province of Alexandria.

The prosecution also charged the accused for targeting vital state institutions and receiving training with IS members in war-torn Syria and Libya. </s> Police in Spain on Tuesday arrested 17 men connected to a suspected network of Islamic State supporters, five of whom are accused of forming a terror cell planning to launch attacks in Barcelona, with the rest suspected of having stolen passports from tourists to support the aspiring jihadists.

The group had been the subject of covert investigation for 18 months, Catalonia’s regional police force said, meaning the probe started at a similar time to the terrorist attacks in Barcelona and Cambrils of August 2017 in which 16 died.

Speaking after the raids, Miquel Buch, Catalonia’s interior chief, said there had been no risk “at any time” of the group pulling off an attack as they were being closely tracked by the police with support from Spain’s CNI secret service.

“Those arrested wanted to commit attacks, but that doesn’t mean they had the actual capacity to carry out a terrorist act”, Mr Buch said.

Five men aged between 33 and 44 were believed to have made up the hardcore of the cell. Police said three of them are from Algeria, while one is Libyan the other Iraqi. All of the suspects lived in Barcelona. </s> CAIRO - An Egyptian court has sentenced 18 suspected militants to life in prison for allegedly forming a “terrorist cell” affiliated with the Islamic State group.

The Cairo criminal court on Saturday sentenced another 12 defendants to 10 to 15 years on charges that include plotting attacks on the country’s Christian minority in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria, assaulting security forces and disrupting public order.

All sentences are subject to appeal.

Egypt has been battling Islamic militants for years, but the insurgency gained strength after the 2013 military overthrow of a freely elected but divisive Islamist president.

Since then, courts have held mass trials and sentenced hundreds of people to death. </s> MADRID -- Authorities in the northeastern Spanish region of Catalonia said 17 people, including five alleged members of an extremist Islamist cell, were arrested Tuesday as part of an ongoing anti-terror operation.

As well as having terror links, the suspects also allegedly participated in theft, drug trafficking and other crimes, according to the Mossos d'Esquadra regional police.

More than 100 agents took part in the operation, which was ongoing as of mid-afternoon, a spokeswoman said.

The spokeswoman said six venues had been searched in and near Barcelona, the regional capital. She declined to be identified by name in line with the police force's standard practices.

Catalan regional minister of security, Miquel Buch, told reporters most of the arrests took place in a central Barcelona neighbourhood, but some were made in the nearby town of Igualada.

The five suspected of being part of an extremist cell were originally from Algeria, Buch told reporters.

“They were determined about carrying out an attack, but they didn't have the capacity for it,” he said.

Investigating magistrate Manuel Garcia-Castellon of the National Court, which normally handles terror-related probes in Spain, ordered the arrests and will be interrogating those who remain in custody later this week, a court spokesman told The Associated Press, following customary rules of anonymity.

Also Tuesday, authorities in southern Spain's Malaga arrested a 27-year-old Moroccan national who police said they suspect could be linked to the Islamic State group. The man allegedly used several social network profiles to express violent views and allegiance to the extremist group. </s> MADRID — A trial has opened over the beating of two police officers and their girlfriends in northern Spain two years ago, a case surrounded by controversy because of the terrorism charges brought against the eight defendants.

Prosecutors say the fight at a bar in Alsasua in October 2016 should be treated as terror injuries and threats and judged as part of the long-standing Basque separatist campaign to oust Spanish security forces.

Supporters and defence lawyers say the charges are disproportionate for what they see as a bar brawl.

They also complain that three of the defendants have been kept in pretrial custody for nearly 18 months and reject the prosecutors’ request for prison sentences ranging between 12 and 62 years.

Tens of thousands of people protested over the weekend in the northern city of Pamplona behind a banner with the slogan “Justice. It’s not terrorism.”
Spain's Audiencia Nacional sentences ten Islamic extremists to between eight and twelve years in prison for a plot to launch attacks against Barcelona landmarks and behead a hostage on camera. The cell was convicted yesterday.