Barcelona – Members of a
suspected militant Islamist cell arrested this week in Spain were trying to
obtain explosives to bomb a Jewish bookshop in Barcelona, an investigating
magistrate said on Friday.
Other potential
targets of the group included synagogues and public buildings in the Catalonia
region, the magistrate said in a report after receiving information from
prosecutors.
The report said seven
of the 11 people arrested on Wednesday in northeastern Catalonia have been put
under formal investigation – a step just short of being charged – and will be
held in custody awaiting trial, it added.
All but one of them is
suspected of belonging to a militant cell with a profile similar to that of the
Islamic State jihadist movement, while the last one is suspected of aiding the
cell and possessing weapons and explosives, it said.
Three other arrested
persons have been granted a conditional release and a fourth is a minor and
will spend six months in a youth reform centre.
Spain has been
cracking down on suspected militants in the wake of the January Islamist
attacks on French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo in Paris that killed 17
people. More than 30 people have been arrested so far this year in Spain.
One of those detained
in Catalonia, described as the cell’s founder, had told members he had been
“about to attack a Jewish bookshop in Barcelona”, the magistrate said in the
report.
The person had also
wanted to kidnap a bank branch manager and had suggested attacking synagogues
and state security forces such as police and the Catalan parliament. The
attackers were to hide in a van, armed with hand grenades and guns.
Authorities found 25
empty bags belonging to one of the people that contained traces of chemicals
that could be used to make explosives, the report said.
