Junts extracts from government commitment to declassify CNI documents on 17-A attacks

This is not the first time that the Government has given in to the demands of the separatists regarding the documentation of the Centre. It is worth recalling that last January, the Council of Ministers approved, for the first time, the partial declassification of the CNI documents on espionage with the Israeli “software” Pegasus to the then President of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès.

This Thursday will be the day when the work of this commission will resume in the Lower House, which until Tuesday had been paralyzed for months. The proposal, which will be voted on tomorrow, includes lifting the secrecy of the minutes of the prison visits of members of the intelligence services to the imam of Ripoll, Abdelbaki Es Sattymastermind of the attacks; as well as transcripts of interviews held with him, among other documents.

Conspiracy theories

After the 17-A attackssectors of the independence movement and some victims have fueled conspiracy theories, precisely, around the figure of Es Satty and his relationship with the CNI. From those who have sown the shadow of suspicion due to the alleged passivity of the Center, to those who have even pointed out the alleged participation of the intelligence services in the attack. Also those who have affirmed that the imam was still alive and had not perished in the explosion of Alcanar, despite the fact that the death was corroborated by the forensic reports.

Among the defenders of this thesis, a deputy of the Junts, Jaume Alonso Cuevillas, also lawyer of the father of one of the victims. The Mossos dismissed this hypothesis and the justice system endorsed their investigations, considering the death of the imam as a “scientifically proven truth”. However, the government then fueled the conspiracy theory around the attack that killed 16 people and injured dozens. After burying the initial hoax with a legal truth – the ruling of the National Court – in January 2022, the Catalan Executive, then commanded by Pere Aragonès (ERC), asked to investigate what was true in the statement of an accused, former commissioner José Manuel Villarejo, who had then highlighted an alleged link between the CNI, the imam of Ripoll and the attack.

This was not the first time that the independence movement had clung to this thesis. The government of Quim Torra had already adopted the conspiracy theory, distorting journalistic information, with the ultimate aim of linking the State to the attack, given the proximity of the 1-O referendum.

The former president of the Parliament, Laura Borràs (Junts), also went further and announced that she would file a complaint with the public prosecutor’s office to determine the role of the intelligence services in the attack. Even the Minister of the Interior at the time of the attacks, Joaquim Forn (Junts), also demanded a “thorough investigation”.

THE Mosscharged with investigating these attacks, have always closed the door to any speculation surrounding the massacre.It was a cell from Ripoll that planned the attack and carried out terrorist actions following the unexpected explosion in Alcanar. “We know clearly how it happened because we conducted the investigation.” These are the words of Commissioner Eduard Sallent on the eve of the second anniversary of 17-A. When he was commissioned, he was in charge of the Corps’ area of ​​analysis and intelligence.