Terrorism trial for ‘La Rambla’ attack to begin on Nov 10

Spain’s National Court has set November 10 as the start date for the trial over the 2017 terror attacks that killed 16 people in Barcelona and the seaside town of Cambrils.

The court is charging the three suspects with crimes such as belonging to a terrorist organization and making and possessing explosives, but says there is not enough evidence to attribute a direct role in the terror attacks to them.

Most of the casualties took place on the Catalan capital’s famous La Rambla boulevard when a van drove at high speed through the middle of the pedestrianized area in the center of the street on August 17, 2017.

The members of the terrorist cell, recruited in the northern town of Ripoll by imam Abdelbaki Es Satty, were plotting to carry out attacks with explosives in crowded areas of Barcelona. On August 16, the house where they were storing the explosives blew up in Alcanar, southern Catalonia, killing Es Satty.

With their leader dead, one of the members of the cell then used a van to run over a crowd in Barcelona’s La Rambla boulevard before stabbing another person and fleeing with their car, killing 15 in total. He was later killed by police officers. 

Hours later, other members of the group killed someone in a knife attack in Cambrils before being shot dead by police.

The three suspects on trial did not take part in any of the attacks, but are accused of being part of the terrorist cell or having had some connection to it.