Two Barcelona attack suspects held without bail

Two of the Barcelona attack suspects are already in prison. Spain's National Court dictated that both Mohamed Houli Chemlal and Driss Oukabir should be held without bail after taking their testimony in Madrid. The judge, Fernando Andreu, also decided to extend the detention of Salh El Karib for 72 hours while the police is still searching his call shop in Ripoll. The fourth person detained by the Catalan police, Mohamed Aalla, has been provisionally released because of a lack of evidence. However, he will have to report to the court once a week and his passport has been taken away.

The judge has charged both Houli Chemlal and Oukabir with being members of a terrorist organization. He has also charged them with murder and terrorist-related injuries. Houli Chemlal was the only survivor of the Alcanar blast  early Thursday morning. He was the first person arrested by the Catalan police only a few hours after the events in La Rambla.

Oukabir was the suspect who went to the police station on Thursday evening after seeing that the media were linking him to the attacks. He said that his brother had stolen his identification, presumably to rent one of the vans used in the incident. Investigators, however, believe that he was also involved in the rental of the van used on La Rambla.

The controversial call shop in Ripoll

Salh El Karib's detention was extended for an additional 3 days while the Catalan police continue to search the call shop he owns in Ripoll. The initial search was completed on Monday just before midnight after 4 hours of work. The officers took several boxes containing material which might bear some relationship to the terrorist cell. The judicial decree states that Driss Oukabir flew to Barcelona from Morocco on August 13. Salh El Karib paid for the plane tickets with his credit card, but he claimed that he had done so for Driss’ brother, Moussa, who had no card.