Yasine Kanjaa, born in Morocco in 1997, was detained as the alleged perpetrator of the deadly attack on two churches in Algeciras shouting “death to Christians” and “Allah is great.” of an expulsion file, but there is no record of him, according to police sources confirm to La Vanguardia.
The arrested man, who committed the crime yesterday afternoon with a large machete, is being investigated for an alleged crime of terrorism. The first investigations try to find out if he is a lone wolf or belongs to a jihadist cell.
The police continue to investigate all the factors related to the events and also continue with the interrogations about the detainee. According to sources from the Ministry of the Interior, the alleged perpetrator had no criminal record, and they say that he had never been followed by security forces or information agents. Last June an expulsion file was opened for him, on which a decision had not yet been issued, because it is not an administrative procedure of immediate execution.
After the attacks, police officers searched a house on Calle Sevilla in the town of Algeciras, where the detainee resided along with two other colleagues. Both were identified and questioned by the agents, although they have not been arrested.
The 25-year-old was wearing a black djellaba at the time of the attack. Experts in the fight against terrorism indicate that this means that his intention was not to immolate himself, since for this purpose terrorists usually wear white clothes. In the images taken by the National Police after his arrest, he is seen wearing a tracksuit on whose pants drops of blood can be seen.
Yasine Kanjaa lived in a house very close to the two churches that she attacked, causing a great commotion among the people of Cádiz in this city of 122,000 inhabitants. At first, he went to the parish of San Isidro where he stabbed, causing serious injuries, the priest Antonio Rodríguez. Then he went to the Nuestra Señora de la Palma church, where he persecuted the sacristan Diego Valencia until he ended his life outside the temple, in the central Plaza Alta de Algeciras.
Local Police officers arrested him when he tried to hide in a third church. The General Information Commissioner, an expert in the fight against terrorism, took charge of the investigation last night with the National Court coordinating the actions. At the time of the arrest, according to sources close to the investigation, Yasine Kanjaa was not documented.
In the vicinity of the square appeared the large machete with which he killed the sacristan and injured four other people, including the first priest attacked. A misbaha, a series of beads similar to a rosary that is traditionally used by the faithful of the Islamic religion, also appeared in the nearby places. When Yasine Kanjaa entered the first church attacked, he insulted the worshipers for not following the Islamic religion.
The investigation has focused on the analysis of the documentation and devices intervened after the entry and search of the house located on Ruiz Tagle street, where he apparently lived with other compatriots. The priority is to find out, in addition to the motivations that led him to commit the attacks, if he is the terrorist profile that fits the lone wolf: an individual who tends to indoctrinate himself, generally through social networks. Or if due to the change, Yasine Kanjaa is part of a possible jihadist cell with other members who would also be willing to attack.
The president of the Junta de Andalucía, Juanma Moreno, explained that it seems that the arrested “had changed his attitude in his environment” in recent times and that he had undergone a process of radicalization, although he stressed that this information is not confirmed. , pending psychiatric analysis. In statements to TVE, Moreno has prescribed prudence and has revealed that the police are currently reviewing the computer devices of the alleged perpetrator of the attack and the security cameras.
