Prosecutor denies terrorist ringleader was intelligence services’ informer

A prosecutor in the National Court has denied that the leader of the jihadist cell which carried out the Barcelona terror attacks was an informer for the Spanish Intelligence Center (CNI).

Last November, Spanish newspapers reported that Abdelbaki Es Satty became an advisor for the intelligence services while serving a prison sentence for drug trafficking. The intelligence agency later confirmed that he had been interviewed for his links with jihadists.

The disclosure caused outrage, especially among members of the Muslim community that employed Es Satty as an imam in the Catalan town of Ripoll. They claimed that nobody informed them of his criminal record and criticized the police for not paying attention to somebody who had allegedly reported to the CNI.

Miguel Ángel Carballo, a deputy prosecutor in Spain’s National Court, which will judge the remaining jihadists, told the Catalan News Agency (ACN) that he had no information on the alleged links between Es Satty and the intelligence services.

While Carballo confirms that Es Satty was contacted while in prison, he states that he was neither interviewed by the CNI nor had the conversation anything to do with an anti-terrorist investigation.