The Mossos do not link the fatal crime in Esplugues to terrorism

BarcelonaA man fatally stabbed this Saturday morning, in the middle of the street, a woman in Esplugues de Llobregat. The man also threatened several neighbors with a knife and slightly injured another. The scene was extremely violent: a witness explains that the man stabbed the victim several times in the back next to some dumpsters and, after threatening other people and with the woman already on the ground, he went back to look for her to cut her throat. Everything indicates that the man and the woman did not know each other and that she was a victim chosen at random, arbitrarily.

Although various reports have emerged claiming the victim was a minor, she was actually 41 years old and of Chinese origin. The man was arrested minutes later at the entrance to Barcelona. He was still armed and the police had to subdue him. At the Les Corts police station, the arrested man continued to be violent and had to be subdued again. After two nights in the cell, he will be brought before the court this Tuesday. Meanwhile, the Mossos investigators are trying to clarify why he attacked the victim and threatened the neighbors.

For now, according to sources consulted by ARA, nothing indicates that there is a jihadist or terrorist motivation behind the attack. Specialists from the General Information Directorate – who are in charge of the fight against terrorism – have not detected initial signs of religious motivation, just as specialists in homicides from the Criminal Investigation Division (DIC) have not detected them either. At the moment, the case is being handled by homicide investigators and not by anti-terrorism, and that already indicates where the investigations are heading.

Nevertheless, the consulted sources warn that there are still tests to be carried out, such as delving deeper into the profile of the man, of Moroccan origin, and that nothing can be ruled out 100%. Yes, all sources agree that behind the events there is a mental health problem.

Also the Minister of the Interior, Núria Parlon, has dissociated the crime from the jihadist motive. "With the information we currently have, it cannot be concluded that it was jihadism, by any means," Parlon assured in an interview with Catalunya Ràdio. "A priori, it is a person who was in an altered state and probably some kind of problem that has nothing to do with jihadism," stressed the minister, who criticized that there are parties and people who "take advantage of this misfortune to fuel hate speech" to "introduce fear-mongering in the general citizenry." In the same vein, Parlon detailed that the man's situation was one of "emotional imbalance".

In fact, information has circulated that the man made Islamist calls during the commission of the crime. Sources consulted by ARA affirm that, as of today, this information is not verified and nothing indicates that any such proclamation was made. A witness consulted by ARA who witnessed the events also does not remember the man uttering religious comments.

"Fostering hatred"

When talking about hate speech, Parlon made a clear reference to parties like Aliança Catalana, which has linked Saturday's murder with Islamist terrorism. "We are probably talking about different problems. It is easy to make associations of this type, generate fear and foster hatred, but they will not find us here. We are fighting against crime," she said. The minister asked to be "respectful" of the secrecy of the investigation in this case, and insisted that “making certain public associations with jihadism to foster hate speech is not appropriate”.

After a weekend with several incidents involving knives and two deaths, the head of the Interior Department assured that crime statistics "are good", but acknowledged that events like these "do not help to defend them publicly". "We have to work with perceptions," she indicated, while positively valuing the work being done with the Kanpai plan and the joint work with local police forces to remove knives from public spaces.