The Imam of Badajoz, Adel Najjar, poses during an interview in 2021.Jero Morales (EFE)
The Imam of Badajoz, Adel Najjar Mohamed, can return home this Friday after being arrested on Wednesday for alleged crimes of jihadist terrorism. Manuel García-Castellón, examining judge at the National Court, approved the release of the religious and rejected the prosecutor’s request to place him in preventive detention on bail of 5,000 euros. Of course, the judge took precautions against the imam, whose passport was confiscated, he was banned from leaving the country and was required to appear in court every 15 days.
The General Information Commissariat of the National Police launched a new anti-jihadist operation on Wednesday, arresting six people in Madrid, Badajoz, Zaragoza and Valencia. Among them, Najjar. According to investigative sources, the focus of the investigation is a suspected plot to finance Syrian Islamist terrorism. The other five arrested are Fady Kutayni Assi, Ghasoub Alabrash Ghalyoun, Omar Mahmoud Jobarani, Mohamed Yaber Aldroubi Al Hussaini and Fawaz Nahhas Al Afandi.
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In addition to the Imam of Bajadoz, the other five suspects were also released this Friday after being handed over to the National Court. The judge ruled that four of them should not be allowed to sleep in prison – he imposed the same precautions on them as the religious. And for the fifth, Ghasoub Alabrash Ghalyoun, the judge had ordered him to be placed in preventive detention on bail of 20,000 euros, but the defendant has already paid this amount and has therefore been released.
Police allege that the six arrested are part of a “criminal network” dedicated to financing terrorism. “Since the beginning of the Syrian conflict in 2011, respondents acted in an organized manner and cooperated in a campaign to raise and send funds whose ultimate target was the Jaysh Al Islam jihadist militia, which is linked to al-Qaeda in Syria,” the In explained in one The press release states that they sent more than 300,000 euros “under the guise of a fundraiser for humanitarian aid for orphaned children.”
This anti-jihadist operation has its origins in an earlier operation by the General Information Commissariat. According to the agents, while investigating a Syrian clan based in Spain in 2019 that “had close ties to al-Qaeda,” they discovered that this alleged terrorist financing network existed. According to police, this plot involved the use of several Spanish associations to send money to “an alleged humanitarian organization called Al Bashaer, which operated mainly in an area of Syria controlled by jihadist militias.”
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According to the investigation, the NGO was founded as an association to support mujahideen orphans, but in fact it directed part of the money collected in Spain to the Jaysh Al Islam jihadist militia. The investigations led to the arrest of three suspected members of the network in March 2021. Now the police point out that the six people arrested this week were also part of the collection network; and adds that they “played a fundamental role in perpetuating criminal activity for at least eight years”: “They promoted fraudulent fundraising campaigns, directed cash transfers from donors to the alleged NGO and sent their own money.”
After being made available to the judge, the prosecution simply requested that Omar Mahmoud Jobarani be placed in a makeshift prison without bail because of “substantial evidence of the supply of money and goods to finance terrorism.” For the Imam of Badajoz and two other defendants (Fady Kutayni Assi and Fawaz Nahhas Al Afandi), the public prosecutor’s office requested evasive detention with a bail of 5,000 euros. He demanded the same measure for Ghasoub Alabrash Ghalyoun with a bail of 20,000 euros. And for Ghasoub Alabrash Ghalyoun, the ministry demanded his release with a ban on leaving Spain.
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