The Prosecutor’s Office of the National Court has requested nine years in prison for Hafid MM, a former common criminal who supposedly suffered a process of jihadist radicalization during his stay in prison and who, subsequently, undertook a campaign to disseminate extremist material with the objective of “feeding” fundamentalism and “inciting incorporation into a terrorist organization.” The public ministry assures that this defendant, of Spanish nationality and resident of Melilla, came to collect information on how to acquire a firearm and drones with a carrying capacity of up to four kilos. And even, according to the indictment, he set fire to a Civil Guard vehicle that was guarding him.
The trial against Hafid MM begins next Monday in the National Court, according to the calendar managed by the public ministry, which attributes to him a crime of “passive self-indoctrination through possession of documents suitable to incite joining a terrorist organization” – for the who asks that he be punished with three years in prison—; and another crime of “damage by means of fire to means of the security forces and bodies” – for which he requests another six years of imprisonment.
Hafid MM’s alleged history of extremism begins at the end of 2018, when he landed in the Botafuegos penitentiary center (Algeciras). According to the documentation available at the National Court, the suspect arrived at the Cadiz prison with a record of robbery with violence and reckless driving without having a license. And there, during his confinement, he began to experience “a progressive radicalization,” which led him to “jihadist postulates.” This process led him “to consume and disseminate videos of this nature,” as described by the Prosecutor’s Office.
Once released, the alleged jihadist continued with this indoctrination activity, according to the accusation. The public ministry explains that, when he was arrested again on March 12, 2021, the Civil Guard found an iPhone 11 phone at his home, which contained “images of the Shahada, a combat icon” of the Islamic State. According to the Prosecutor’s Office, this device also revealed that he had accessed and viewed videos “alluding to jihad” and scenes “inciting jihadist martyrdom”: “he was a regular consumer of Salafist material contained on a platform [web]”, adds the indictment, which adds that, with the aim of carrying out “terrorist behavior in the future”, Hafid MM used that terminal to “carry out searches for the acquisition of a firearm and drones with the capacity to carry up to four kilos.”
The radicalization of prisoners in prison is one of the great concerns of anti-terrorist forces. The Ministry of the Interior not only keeps under surveillance those imprisoned for jihadism, but has put a magnifying glass on other common prisoners who could be indoctrinated. For these reasons, there are currently 159 inmates under scrutiny in the country’s penitentiary centers: 66 convicted or pretrial inmates linked to jihadist terrorism crimes; 39 imprisoned for common crimes who have been detected proselytizing radical Islam in prisons; and another 54 who “have revealed attitudes or behaviors that could be considered indicative of violent radicalization of an Islamist nature.”
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In its indictment, the Prosecutor’s Office also describes how Hafid MM allegedly set fire to a camouflaged police vehicle that was monitoring him with “covert recording equipment.” The Civil Guard had parked this car in front of the alleged jihadist’s home, but he became suspicious and, after breaking a window to verify that it was hiding a camera, “sprayed a flammable liquid inside” and set it on fire.
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