MADRID (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 14th August, 2020) The Catalan authorities are seeking lengthy prison terms for three men suspected of having a role in the 2017 vehicle-ramming attacks that left dozens dead or injured, Spanish media said Friday.
Spain's National Court charged Mohamed Houli Chemlal, Driss Oukabir and Said Ben Iazza in July with gang membership, explosives-related crimes and an attempt to cause criminal damage. No murder charges were filed.
Chemlal was injured in a blast, a day before the August 17 attacks, after a bomb he is suspected of having worked on went off in a house in Alcanar, killing his two accomplices. Iazza is accused of lending a van to his friends to move explosives.
Oukabir is the brother of a man who plowed a van registered in his name into a crowd in Barcelona's most popular street, La Rambla, killing 14 people. He denies knowing about the terror plot.
The prosecutors are seeking 41 years in prison for Chemlal and 36 years for Oukabir, the Spanish news agency Efe said. The Catalan government demands 44 years for each of them, while Barcelona's mayoral office wants them to be jailed for 95 and 90 years, respectively.
All plaintiffs are seeking an eight-year prison term for Ben Iazza, except two groups representing terror victims who demand that the trio be jailed for life, without the right to apply for parole for at least 25 years.
The mayoral office of Cambrils, a town near Barcelona, wants the three to be tried for murder and causing bodily harm. Five of their friends were shot dead in a second vehicle attack in Cambrils, in which a woman was killed and six other people were injured.
