The computer material seized in the search of the occupied house where Yassine Kanjaa resided, arrested for the murder of a sacristan and the attack on a parish priest in Algeciras, will be decisive, as confirmed by the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, to reveal the nature and scope of the tragedy that has left Algeciras (Cádiz, 122,000 inhabitants) in mourning. “All the hypotheses are still open & rdquor;, noted Interior. It could be an act of a terrorist nature or the act of a young man with psychiatric disorders. Or both. He acted alone and was not on any radar of the national services for radicalization or in the bases of other countries allied with Spain.
Until five USB devices, located by the National Police in the house shared with four other people illegally, will reveal whether the 25-year-old, who had an expulsion order since June and was in the country irregularly, was acting alone or under the cloak of some kind of criminal organization. The National Court investigates whether what happened is related to “jihadist Salafism & rdquor ;. The detainee will not go to court yet and could remain in custody for five days, the minister said.
Kanjaa had become, say his ‘patera’ flatmates, a sullen guy. In recent months, she had become radicalized and he only talked about religion, according to another Moroccan boy who had lived with him. He was always alone, say the neighbors, on a scooter. He sometimes he murmured alone.
The substandard housing in which he had stayed for the last few months was barely 250 meters from the church where he murdered the sacristan with a large machete. The search also found, confirm police sources, religious propaganda. “He was a person who was not in his right mind & rdquor;, repeats Omar Khemlani, imam in one of the largest mosques of the six that are in Algeciras. He assures that he was not a person known to the Islamic community and describes him as someone with mental disorders. In fact, he was expelled from the Puerto de Algeciras mosque due to his violent ways “about ten days ago & rdquor ;, Khemlani confirms to this newspaper.
Interior confirmed that he had no history of terrorism nor was he being followed by the Police. The Government of Gibraltar reported that he had arrived at the Rock by jet ski on August 2, 2019 and was deported back to Morocco six days later on August 8. Interior is not aware of his presence in Spain until last June. It is the great complaint that the neighbors who came to pay their respects to Diego Valencia, the murdered sacristan, slipped.
Coexistence in Algeciras was presumed to be exemplary, but concern is detected for an undetermined number of immigrants who remain in the city in an irregular situation. “What were you doing here if you had an expulsion order? They are eating us, they are eating us & rdquor ;, Carmen complained to another neighbor out loud for the record.
The Minister of the Interior defended that all expulsion files are followed up and that there is a high rate of return in Spain, despite the fact that the administrative procedures are very long.
Algeciras did not expect to be the protagonist of an event investigated as jihadist terrorism. “You always know that we are in the thick of it, but you never believe that nothing is going to happen,” admitted Antonio, a neighbor who has spent the whole day watching the television cameras that turned the Plaza Alta de Algeciras into a set. The murder of Diego Valencia has confirmed to the city of Campo de Gibraltar that the jihadist threat it is a reality that lives with them, in their own streets.
The pain for the crime, the sacristan was a “truly good man & rdquor; Very dear to many people from Algeciras, the day after was mixed with the shock at the vulnerability felt by the residents. At 9:40 p.m. his coffin arrived at the church where he spent a good part of his day to day. Again, many neighbors were waiting to show their respect to him. “Creature, with how good it was,” said a woman through tears before offering her condolences to the family of the deceased, married with two daughters, who had run a flower shop for years and who was well known in many circles for his relationship with Holy Week and Carnival. “Good father, good grandfather, good person. He was good,” said another close friend.
The other parish priest stabbed by the detainee, Antonio Rodríguez Lucena, who was attacked in the church of San Isidro, has been discharged from the hospital after surgery for a violent assault and at 74 years old he asks to be allowed to rest. It has been a blow, but the neighbors comment huddled in huddles at the scene of the murder that “The tragedy could have been much greater & rdquor;.
It was a long and intense day of mourning in this city, with 122,000 inhabitants and an Islamic community of between 15,000 and 20,000 people. In Algeciras, its mayor, José Ignacio Landaluce, boasted 129 nationalities live together. The official census includes 10,325 foreigners, the majority from Morocco. There are many more without papers or residing irregularly, admit those responsible for the Muslim religious communities.
The tension was noted during the massive concentration at twelve noon to show the pain for the tragedy. Previously, the Vox spokesman in the Andalusian Parliament, Manuel Gavira, had come to the square with a speech that warned against “uncontrolled illegal immigration& rdquor; and he warned that Muslim culture “is incompatible with ours& rdquor;.
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It was then that representatives of the Islamic community of Algeciras began to arrive, to make it clear that their religion “is not violent & rdquor; and show “their shame and their pain & rdquor; Because of what happened, there were neighbors who reproached him for his presence. The calls for calm and moderation from the majority of attendees ended up turning off the various attempts at confrontations that took place in the square.
“It’s a rotten fish, period,” said Bouchra El Kaizini, in Algeciras since 2006, married to a Spaniard and mother of a Spanish girl. “The pain is double for us because of the damage it does to us& rdquor;he added while a man in a coat and tie accused them of the murder. “And the infidels are the Christians, they say, the Christians,” a parishioner from the church of La Palma complained while a general murmur asked her for silence.