The man who hired the imam from Ripoll: "Inside, he looked like an angel, but outside, he was a demon."

BarcelonaThe congressional commission charged with investigating the August 17 jihadist attacks in Barcelona and Cambrils has summoned Ali Yassine, former president of the Annour Mosque in Ripoll, to testify this Tuesday. As the leader of the town's Muslim community, he was responsible for hiring Abdelbaki es-S. Es-Satty would end up being the mastermind behind the attacks perpetrated by young people from Ripoll. After the attacks, the former president of the mosque claimed that he had never seen any signs of radicalization in the imam, and he reiterated this today.

"He never made any radical speeches and we never received any complaints," Yassine remarked about the work Es-Satty did during the eight months he was imam, until he requested three months of vacation and was fired. "Inside, he seemed like an angel, but outside, he was a demon," he said. The former president of the region has pointed out that the Spanish security forces and the Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police) carried out routine visits to the mosque, but did not permanently monitor the imam: "They never asked me any questions about him."

"When we hired him, we didn't know he had a criminal record; if we had known, we wouldn't have hired him," he said, before lamenting that the Spanish security forces failed to inform him of his ties to jihadism. He also noted that he had no relationship with the youths due to their age difference, but made it clear that he had "no suspicion" of their radicalization. In this sense, he attributed the process of radicalization of these youths to "the lack of information they had about Islam," and argued that their religion is "against violence." "Es-Satty has led Islam to ruin," exclaimed Yassine, who emotionally stated that he still remembers "the image of the three-year-old boy killed" in the attack on Las Ramblas.

"If someone has radical discourse, they must be expelled or imprisoned," he said, and called for the promotion of "correct Islam, which does not mean killing people." Despite asserting that he shares "some things" with the mayor of Ripoll, Silvia Orriols—such as the expulsion of Salafi imams—Yassine criticized her for criminalizing the entire Muslim community.

Prior to Yassine's appearance, Fernando Reinares, former director of the program on violent radicalization and global terrorism at the Elcano Royal Institute, appeared. The researcher said he did not know if the imam was being monitored, although he admitted that he had become "radicalized" in prison. "He was able to deceive the security forces and then influence the young people of Ripoll," he noted. "The conditions could have been right for him to provide information to the CNI, but since he left prison, he hasn't collaborated with the State," he said when asked if he believes he was an informant for the Spanish secret services.

"Es-Satty was very careful and told the young people how they should behave," he said, referring to the perpetrators of the attacks. Regarding the State's exchange of information with Belgium, which described Es-Satty as radical, Reinares explained that in a case like this, "an informal circuit" should not be used and that there were "sufficient elements to carry out a formal consultation and access all the information about the imam."

So far, the most high-profile statements coming out of the congressional commission have been those of Mohamed Houli, one of the young men who were part of the cell, who is now imprisoned. Houli stated that "The CNI was aware of the imam's intentions."According to his version, the Spanish intelligence services "allowed" Abdelbaki es-Satty to go to Ripoll and "brainwash" them. "I'm saying this now and not before for fear of reprisals or that it might harm me, but I'm already convicted and I have nothing to lose," he said. Beyond his words, he offered no other evidence that this was true.