Catalan investigators on Saturday raided the house of an imam in the town of Ripoll they believe may have overseen the cell which killed 14 people in twin terrorist attacks in Barcelona and the seaside resort of Cambrils.
Police are trying to piece together how a cell composed of multiple sets of brothers from the same sleepy Pyrenees town came to carry out the devastating attacks, amid reports they planned to blow up the Sagrada Familia.
The home of the imam, named as Abdelbaki Es Satty, was raided overnight from Friday to Saturday, with officers reportedly seeking - among other evidence - DNA samples which might link him to a building in the town of Alcanar believed to be where the attack was prepared.
El Pais, a leading Spanish daily, said they were investigating whether the imam, who apparently left Ripoll around a month ago, might be one of two dead bodies discovered in the Alcanar house. Sources involved in the investigation told El Confidencial they believed he was a "spiritual or idealogical leader" to the cell members, radicalizing them and helping them to plan the attacks.
The sources cited the lack of previous terror links among the group and said they had detected a number of trips by some members of France and Morocco. Police did not officially confirm or deny the reports.
A spokesperson for the Catalan force said they were working on the “principle hypothesis” that the cell was comprised of 12 members, 11 of whom have now been identified and hail almost exclusively from Ripoll.
Five members died at the hands of police in the attack on Cambrils late on Thursday night, which killed one woman and injured several others. Moussa Oukabir, 17, Mohammed Hychami, 23 and Said Aallaa, 19, all believed to be of Moroccan origin, have been officially identified as among the attackers killed. The other two have been named by Spanish press as Omar Hychami, Mohammed’s brother, and Houssaine Aouyaaquoub, who is presumed to be a family member of Younes Aouyaaquoub, the suspected driver of the Ramblas van who remains on the run.
Another four have been detained, including Driss Oukabir, Moussa’s 23-year-old brother, whose identification was found in the van that attacked Barcelona’s Ramblas but who claims it was stolen by his sibling. Almost all of the men lived in close proximity in Ripoll - Oukabir and Mohammed Hychami in the same building - while Allaa lived in the nearby town of Ribes de Freser.
The head of the Ripoll mosque at which the Satty preached told reporters that he had arrived just over a year ago and left at the end of June when he asked for three months' holiday to visit Morocco and was denied.
The imam, said to be a father of about 45 years old, had never said or done anything to prompt concern, said the mosque chief, Ali Yassine.
"We never heard anything about him or received any (complaint) until this happened, and we don't know how this happened, this has fallen on us like a stone," he said. But, he added, no one could know what was happening "inside a person's head".
The suspected cell members rarely came to the mosque, but from their little interaction had seemed like "normal boys", Mr Yassine explained, adding that he had only ever seen Younes Aouyaaquoub "three or four times".
