Madrid.
A suspected terrorist killed a clergyman in Spain with a machete. The day after the crime, the shock is deep.
The day after, candlelight and bouquets of flowers mark the spot where the 65-year-old Catholic sacristan died in the historic center of the southern Spanish city Algeciras died. Fatally wounded by several blows with a long machete.
Passers-by remain at the crime scene. Some pray, others cry – the sexton of the church “Nuestra Señora de la Palma” was popular in the community. The churchman had tried to defend his place of worship against an attacker on Wednesday evening after the end of mass with a machete had entered the church.
Spain: Church servants brutally attacked
“Death to all Christians” and “Allah is great”, he is said to have called out according to witnesses. At around 7:30 p.m., he pushed open the church door and began damaging church paintings and throwing candlesticks on the floor.
The sexton, who was cleaning up the altar, tried to calm the man down and asked him to leave the church. At that moment, the first blow with the machete hit him. The injured sacristan was able to escape from the church, but he came for him outside on the forecourt assassin and struck again with his gun. His victim died shortly afterwards.
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Attacker was arrested
Just minutes earlier, the attacker in the neighboring church, the “Iglesia de San Isidro”, attacked the local pastor and injured him in the neck with a machete. The 74-year-old clergyman survived severe cut injuries, but is no longer in mortal danger. On the way between the two churches, which are about 500 meters apart, the assassin attacked two passers-by, but only slightly injured them.
A few minutes after attack series the police managed to apprehend the man near the scene of the crime. “He dropped to his knees and allowed himself to be arrested without resistance,” said an officer. According to the police, the perpetrator is a 25-year-old man of Moroccan nationality.
Perpetrator probably had no residence permit in Spain
The arrested person has not yet been noticed as an Islamist extremist, the authorities said. It is hoped that further information will come from documents and data carriers found at the search of the apartment of the man had been found in Algeciras.
So far, the only thing that seems certain is that the 25-year-old didn’t have a residence permit and that’s why there was an expulsion notice against him for a long time. However, tens of thousands of Spanish expulsion orders, especially with African countries, cannot be implemented because the countries of origin refuse to take back their nationals.
Court investigates suspected terrorist attack
Meanwhile, the National Court of Justice in Madrid ruled on the suspicion of a terrorist attack took over the investigation. Spain’s Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska, who traveled to Algeciras on Thursday, said further investigations would show whether there really was a terrorist background to the crime.
Spain registered the last terrorist attack five and a half years ago: In August 2017, an Islamist assassin drove a van through a busy pedestrian zone in Barcelona and killed 16 people. In the seaside resort of Cambrils before they were shot dead by the police. Behind this series of attacks was one Islamist terrorist cellwhose members were all of Moroccan descent. You might also be interested in: Knife attack on the train: Why was Ibrahim A. still in the country?
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