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Spanish court convicts two jihadist inmates for trying to recruit new followers

Spain's top criminal court has handed seven-and-a-half year prison terms to two prisoners jailed for terror offences for writing to other inmates encouraging them to stick to jihadist ideology, court documents showed Tuesday.

Spanish court convicts two jihadist inmates for trying to recruit new followers
An inmate's hand is seen through the bars of a window at the Teixeiro prison, near A Coruna. Photo: MIGUEL RIOPA/AFP.

In a ruling dated February 12, the Audiencia Nacional criminal court jailed Karim Abdeselam Mohamed, 50, and Mohamed El Gharbi, 36, for “recruitment and
terrorist indoctrination” and ordered that each pay an €1,800 fine.

In practice the pair were convicted “for sending letters to other inmates to encourage them to hold on to the jihadist ideology of Islamic State (IS) and urge them to continue terrorist activities once released”.

Both were already serving time for belonging to a terror group, with Mohamed jailed for 12 years in 2015 and Gharbi jailed for eight years in 2018.  A third defendant, Abdelah Abdeselam Ahmed, was acquitted because although he too wrote “belligerent and radical” letters, they didn’t include IS-related “slogans, emblems or drawings”.

Gharbi and Mohamed met inside various prison facilities and began writing to each other, ultimately deciding “to bring together and lead those imprisoned for jihadist crimes so that they wouldn’t abandon this ideology,” the ruling said.

The aim was to encourage them to “remain strong and united in prison” by offering support via handwritten letters that included flags, IS symbols and religious texts. They also painted themed graffiti in places visible to other inmates so they would know radical IS-loyal prisoners were being held there in order to build a “prison front” which was effectively a “collective of radical Muslim prisoners,” it said.

Not only did they approach inmates jailed for jihad offences, but they also sought to “educate, radicalise and attract new followers to their violent ideology” through IS-related slogans.

Ultimately they used their time behind bars to “carry out proselytising activities, to recruit and indoctrinate other inmates,” it said.

Mohamed was jailed in 2015 alongside 10 other jihadists for belonging to an IS-linked group that recruited potential suicide bombers to go to Syria and that dispatched “numerous jihadists”, several of whom had died in such attacks.

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CRIME

Top Spanish court rules kiss without consent is sexual assault

Spain's Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that a kiss without "tacit consent" can be considered sexual assault, just months before former football federation chief Luis Rubiales will stand trial over his unsolicited kiss at the Women's World Cup.

Top Spanish court rules kiss without consent is sexual assault

The Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling from the southern region of Andalusia which convicted a police officer of sexual assault and sentenced him to one year and nine months in jail for kissing a woman on the cheek who was in police custody.

“A ‘stolen kiss’, and thus without express or implied consent, constitutes sexual assault in actuality,” the court said, adding that “it is clear that the fleeting contact of a non-consensual kiss represents a bodily invasion”.

“A ‘no’ from the victim is not necessary in the face of attempts to kiss a woman, but rather that for there not to be a crime, what is needed is consent. The key is consent, to the point that if consent has not been given, there has been sexual aggression.”

The issue of whether an unsolicited kiss can be considered sexual assault is a hot topic in Spain since Rubiales provoked worldwide outrage by kissing star player Jenni Hermoso on the lips during the medal ceremony after Spain beat England to win the World Cup in Australia last year.

At the time, Rubiales, 46, brushed it off as “a consensual” peck on the lips, but Hermoso, 34, said it was not.

She filed a lawsuit against Rubiales in September, telling the judge she had come under pressure to defend him both on the flight back from Australia and on a subsequent team holiday to Ibiza in the Balearic Islands.

Rubiales is set to stand trial from February 3 to 19 over the kiss. Public prosecutors have requested a sentence of two-and-a-half years in prison for Rubiales – one year for sexual assault and 18 months for coercion.

The former federation chief, who quit his post last year in the wake of the controversy, told private Spanish television station La Sexta in April that he could not understand how it could be labelled as sexual assault, saying there was “no sexual context” to it.

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