ERC and Junts Demand New Testimonies in Investigation of 2017 Barcelona Attacks
The independentist parties in Catalonia call for further hearings related to the August 17 attacks amid allegations of intelligence failures.
Esquerra Republicana and Junts per Catalunya have requested additional testimonies for the Congressional investigation committee addressing the August 17, 2017, terrorist attacks in Barcelona.
The republicans have specifically called for the former director of the National Intelligence Centre (CNI), Félix Sanz Roldán, to testify again, while the post-convergence party demands the appearance of the former head of the Girona counter-terrorism division and current CNI Secretary General, Luis García Terán. They also seek the testimony of the operational officer who had contact with Abdelbaky Es Satty, the imam of Ripoll and mastermind behind the attacks, as well as his superior during the monitoring period.
These requests follow a report by a national newspaper claiming that Es Satty was an informant for the CNI leading up to the attacks and received 500 euros monthly.
During his previous appearance before the committee on November 24, Sanz Roldán denied any knowledge of Es Satty being a CNI informant.
Concurrently, Junts per Catalunya has requested reports from the CNI's Girona counter-terrorism division regarding the surveillance of Es Satty while he resided in the Ripollès region.
They are also seeking information about his interactions with the operational officer and that officer's superior.
In reaction to the published information, ERC's spokesperson in Congress, Gabriel Rufián, criticized the CNI, stating that they were ‘not only ineffective but also negligent and absolutely irresponsible.’ He further alleged that ‘the worst terrorist attack in recent Southern European history was partly financed with public funds paid to an informant who turned out to be a jihadist terrorist.’
The republicans have specifically called for the former director of the National Intelligence Centre (CNI), Félix Sanz Roldán, to testify again, while the post-convergence party demands the appearance of the former head of the Girona counter-terrorism division and current CNI Secretary General, Luis García Terán. They also seek the testimony of the operational officer who had contact with Abdelbaky Es Satty, the imam of Ripoll and mastermind behind the attacks, as well as his superior during the monitoring period.
These requests follow a report by a national newspaper claiming that Es Satty was an informant for the CNI leading up to the attacks and received 500 euros monthly.
During his previous appearance before the committee on November 24, Sanz Roldán denied any knowledge of Es Satty being a CNI informant.
Concurrently, Junts per Catalunya has requested reports from the CNI's Girona counter-terrorism division regarding the surveillance of Es Satty while he resided in the Ripollès region.
They are also seeking information about his interactions with the operational officer and that officer's superior.
In reaction to the published information, ERC's spokesperson in Congress, Gabriel Rufián, criticized the CNI, stating that they were ‘not only ineffective but also negligent and absolutely irresponsible.’ He further alleged that ‘the worst terrorist attack in recent Southern European history was partly financed with public funds paid to an informant who turned out to be a jihadist terrorist.’
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