The National Court has sentenced Bilal Jfita, imam of a mosque in Getafe (Madrid), to five years and six months in prison for exaltation and jihadist self-indoctrination. The court considers it proven that the accused, 30 years old and from Rabat (Morocco), incited others through social networks and messaging channels —such as Facebook and WhatsApp— to commit violent acts of a “terrorist nature”, and that he even he “trained himself” to carry them out himself. Among the intervened material, more than 400 nasheeds (religious songs) of radical content; 100 videos and 500 images of “jihadist theme”; eight magazines edited by producers of the self-styled Islamic State (ISIS, for its acronym in English); and “instructions to commit attacks,” according to the ruling.
The court concludes that the activities carried out by Bilal Jfita pose “a serious, concrete and certain danger of carrying out terrorist actions by himself and by third parties.” The imam also worked as a teacher in the madrasa (school) of the Allstikama mosque in Getafe, where he “taught Koran memorization classes to children.” “Numerous references to the indoctrination of children have been located among its jihadist material, such as photographs and audios in which it is lamented that the ‘infidels’ have done the impossible to prevent young people from going to do jihad,” they stress. the magistrates.
Arrested in 2020, the Police maintain that Jfita also helped an ISIS fighter returned from Syria, Moussa El Morabí, to settle in Spain. In fact, the trail left by El Morabí, who was captured in Barcelona in December 2018, led to the Getafe imam. The court affirms that there is sufficient evidence that both maintained contacts in person and through the Internet, based on the investigations carried out by the agents on the environment of El Morabí. However, during the trial, Bilal Jfita denied knowing this terrorist.
The seized material has been essential to convict the imam. The investigations revealed that Jfita actively participated in up to 41 jihadist-themed mobile messaging groups on Telegram, and that he accumulated “50 videos with images of deaths, executions and murders by violent methods.” Recordings that he exchanged with other people, according to the sentence, which highlights the security measures that he adopted to avoid being discovered. In this line, he had an infographic prepared by ISIS with the title: “Security advice for jihadists in enemy lands.”
“In addition to inciting third parties to carry out acts of extreme violence and terrorist nature through his public messaging channels and social networks, he trained himself to carry them out himself,” insists the resolution of the National Court, which clinches: “[Todo ello]through the collection and storage of information, not only regarding extremist religious issues and doctrines, but also about the training of the mujahideen and executors of suicide operations, and military exercises, executions perpetrated by jihadist terrorists, instructions to commit attacks, etc”.
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