Three Syrian residents and a Moroccan detained between 2019 and 2020 in the provinces of Madrid and Toledo They have denied in the trial that they financed jihadists displaced to Syria to combat in the ranks of the Islamic State in order for them to return to their nations of origin, particularly Europe, to proceed their exercise.
This Monday, the National Court started the trial of those four accused, two of them detained in Madrid and the others in the Madrid city of Fuenlabrada and in Yuncos, Toledo, for whom the prosecutor requests ten years in jail for the crime of financing terrorism and for two of them additionally three others for falsehood. According to the prosecutor, “given the lack of territorial energy of this group in Syrian territory, one of many targets of this community was to realize the return of combatants to their nations of origin to proceed terrorist actions there.
In his indictment, the prosecutor accuses them of being associated to a community that despatched money to individuals associated to the Islamic State in the Al Hol and Al Roj detention camps in Syria by a way referred to as hawalathat’s to say by undeclared opaque means in which money moved by a series of collaborators primarily with hand-to-hand deliveries.
A lawyer “fleeing the struggle”
One of the accused, MA, has declared that he’s a Syrian lawyer who has resided in Madrid since he arrived in Spain in April 2018 together with his spouse and 7 kids. fleeing the Syrian struggle as refugees by the United Nations. MA has denied that she financed anybody associated to the Islamic State and has assured that she is a sufferer of the terrorists, who’ve kidnapped and imprisoned her a number of instances.
He has additionally assured that, as he was a lawyer, household and mates who had been in Syria, Turkey or Lebanon requested him for assist to handle money transfers, however he has insisted that He by no means despatched any quantity to individuals linked to the Islamic State. When requested about 3,300 euros in money that had been seized from his dwelling when he was arrested in May 2019, he indicated that he had money as a result of he offered his home and a automotive when he was in Lebanon earlier than journey to Spain.
The Syrian brothers SS and AS, detained in Madrid and Yuncos, respectively, have additionally denied the accusations. The first has mentioned that he arrived in Spain in 2013 and that the money actions he made had been associated to his enterprise buy of vehicles for scrapping and sale of their components.
The second has mentioned that he arrived in Spain in September 2015 when he was 17 years previous and that he was arrested in an industrial warehouse in a Yuncos industrial property when he was shopping for and promoting truck components. The Moroccan defendant AEG has defined that he’s a VTC driver and that he has lived at his dwelling in Fuenlabrada for sixteen years. One of the law enforcement officials in cost of the investigation has testified that the accused carried out “1000’s of money transactions to the battle zone destined for individuals who belonged to the Islamic State” and added that “nearly all of them wished to return to Europe”.
