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Two jihadists held in Spain for plotting terrorist attacks

Spanish police have arrested two men accused of plotting to carry out an Isis-inspired attack in Europe.

Published: 26 September 2016 11:06 CEST
Two jihadists held in Spain for plotting terrorist attacks
The men were inspired by Isis to plan the attacks. Photo: AFP

Spain’s interior ministry said that had arrested two men of Moroccan origin who were working together on plans to carry out a terrorist attack.

One of the men had recently travelled to Turkey in an attempt to cross the border into Syria to join the so-called Islamic State in order to receive training before returning to Europe to carry out an attack.

“He’d made plans to secretly travel to the Syrian border, make contact with Daesh who would transfer him to a confict zone,” said the statement released by the Interior Ministry.

“Once there he planned to undergo intense training in weapons and explosives with the aim of returning to Europe to carry out terrorist actions.”

But the man was arrested by Turkish police before crossing the border and on his release was returned to Spain where he continued to conspire with the other detained man to carry out his plan.

“Both men shared the same jihadist principles,” said the statement.

The men were detained in the cities of Valladolid, northern Spain and Murcia in the south.

 

 

 

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ISIS

Ex-jihadi housewife jailed in Norway for joining IS

A Norwegian court on Tuesday sentenced a woman who lived as a housewife in Syria to prison for being a member of the Islamic State group (IS), despite not actively fighting herself.

Published: 4 May 2021 20:11 CEST
Ex-jihadi housewife jailed in Norway for joining IS
The Kurdish-run al-Hol camp which holds suspected relatives of Islamic State fighters.Photo: Delil SOULEIMAN / AFP

The Oslo court sentenced the Norwegian-Pakistani woman to three and a half years in prison for “participating in a terrorist organisation” by taking care of her household and enabling her three husbands to fight.

“By travelling to an area controlled by IS in Syria… by moving in and living with her husbands, taking care of the children and various tasks at home, the defendant enabled her three husbands to actively participate in IS fighting,” judge Ingmar Nilsen said as he read out the verdict.

Being a housewife to three successive husbands did not render her a passive bystander, the judge said.

“On the contrary, she was a supporter who enabled the jihad, looked after her three husbands at home and raised the new generation of IS recruits,” he said.

The young woman, who admitted having “radical ideas” at the time, left for Syria in early 2013 to join an Islamist fighter, Bastian Vasquez, who was fighting the regime.

Although she did not take up arms herself, she was accused of having allowed her husbands to go fight while taking care of her two children and household chores.

The trial was the first prosecution in Norway of someone who had returned after joining IS.

“This is a special case,” prosecutor Geir Evanger acknowledged during the trial.

“This is the first time that, to put it bluntly, someone has been charged for being a wife and mother.”

The prosecution had called for a four-year sentence, while the defence had called for her acquittal and immediately appealed Tuesday’s verdict.

The woman’s lawyer, Nils Christian Nordhus, argued that his client had quickly wanted to leave Syria after being subjected to domestic violence.

She had also been a victim of human trafficking because she had been held against her will, he added.

But the judge stressed that she had participated in the organisation “knowingly” and of her own will.

The woman was repatriated to Norway in early 2020 on humanitarian grounds with her two children, including a young boy described as seriously ill.

At least four other Norwegian women and their children are being held in Kurdish-controlled camps in Syria.

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