Jihadism in Spain: A silent but real threat
MADRID: Europe's latest jihadist attacks
may have targeted France and Austria, but Spain, like the rest of the
continent, remains within the sights of extremists and the threat level
is still "severe", experts say.
The issue has returned to the
headlines in Spain since last month, with three men currently on trial
near Madrid for helping the jihadists behind the 2017 vehicle attacks in
Barcelona and a nearby resort that killed 16 and was claimed by the
Islamic State (IS) group. The trial is due to end on December 16.
There
have also been a string of arrests in recent weeks, including a
Moroccan imam who, according to police, provided "logistical support" to
an IS militant in Syria allowing him to settle in Spain in 2018.
There
are five levels of threat in Spain and since 2015, the country has been
at level four, meaning the threat of an attack is considered high.
Speaking at a recent forum organised by the Real Instituto Elcano
think tank, Spain's junior security minister Rafael Perez Ruiz said
jihadism was "the main threat to our country and the international
community as a whole".
And the response, he said, was playing out on
two fronts: in Spain and in Africa's vast, arid Sahel region,
particularly in Mali, which in recent years has become a breeding ground
for jihadist groups, turning it into "the epicentre of the terror
threat".
It is there that Spain has been engaged in a policy of military training, diplomatic engagement and economic development.
Although
public perception is that the threat level "has decreased",
particularly since the defeat of the Islamic State group's caliphate in
Iraq and Syria, said Manuel R. Torres, a jihadism expert at Seville's Pablo de Olavide University: but the reality is that the threat remains "severe".
And
the situation requires "significant counter-terror activity" in Spain,
where more than 30 people have been arrested this year on terror-related
charges, interior ministry figures show.
Among them were two people
who sent money to IS in Syria, and a radicalised young Spanish woman
who was preparing to head to Syria to marry a jihadist.
The radicalisation process had not changed over the past decade, said Torres.
"The
ongoing consumption of propaganda" along with personal relationships
within jihadist networks eventually "proved decisive in the shift from
cognitive radicalisation to the use of violence".
Relationships have
been a key element in the ongoing Barcelona trial, given that the cell
was made up of young Moroccan men living in Spain, among them four sets
of brothers who were radicalised by an imam.
But the three men on
trial, charged with helping the perpetrators of the twin attacks, have
shed little light on the events so far. When testifying, they have
referred to their pretrial statements.
"The trial is causing a lot
of frustration," given the sparse testimony of the defendants and the
stance of the judge, who has skimmed over key questions about the
radicalisation process, according to journalist Anna Teixidor.
"It
is very difficult to open up new lines of inquiry," said Teixidor, who
carried out an extensive investigation into the bloodshed entitled "The
Silences of August 17" -- a reference to the weekend when the attacks
took place.
Since the Madrid attacks of March 11, 2004 when Al
Qaeda-inspired extremists killed 191 people in Europe's deadliest-ever
jihadist outrage, some 870 people have been arrested on terror-related
charges, according to official figures.
The number shows the huge challenge facing the security forces.
"The
high number of radicalised individuals, agitators, recruiters and of
people released" after serving time "makes it impossible to effectively
monitor them," and requires better risk assessment mechanisms, says
Román Echaniz, of the International Observatory of Studies on Terrorism.
Since 2004, Spain has run a programme for monitoring jihadism in
prisons where radicalised individuals are held to ensure they don't pass
on their ideas to others.
There are currently 119 such prisoners
behind bars, among them those serving out a sentence as well as those in
pre-trial detention.
The authorities monitor whether those
convicted of minor crimes are spreading jihadist propaganda or
recruiting vulnerable people.
Two years ago, the authorities dismantled a recruitment and indoctrination network involving 25 prisoners.
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