The Central Children’s Court of the National Court (AN) sentenced to four and a half years in prison the 17-year-old boy who prepared explosives in his house in the Seville municipality of Montellano to commit a jihadist attack. The young man will also have to submit to a deradicalization plan.
In a judgment reported by Europa Press, the judge imposes – according to judicial sources – the highest sentence ever imposed on a minor. In this case, as the perpetrator of the crimes of integration into a terrorist organization due to his membership in the Islamic State and for possession of explosives. Magistrate José Luis de Castro, who also imposed five years of supervised release on the young man, ordered the technical team of the juvenile center to develop a deradicalization plan during his stay.
According to the judgment, since February 2023, the national police were aware of the progressive radicalization of the minor, who accessed “radical jihadist content” via the Internet in order to acquire sufficient knowledge “about Daesh and its ideals as well as how to lead it. terrorist attacks with explosives.
The magistrate affirms that his development was such that at the beginning of this year the minor planned to commit an attack using the explosive TATP, known as the “mother of Satan”. This is the same type of explosive substance that was also prepared by the jihadist cell that carried out the attacks in Barcelona and Cambrils.
He assumed “his role as a cyber-soldier”
The sentence indicates that “a radical jihadist evolution” is visible in his social media profiles throughout 2023. Specifically, due to the convict’s receipt and dissemination of content about the State Islamic. The judge ensures in particular that the minor had “assumed his role as a cyber-soldier or virtual jihadist”, which led the agents to carry out follow-ups which revealed some of the preparations he carried out.
The convict, accompanied by a friend, went to the field with a backpack and stains similar to those from a fire were found in the area. In January 2024, the police found that he had thrown away two bags containing different materials and substances with which he could make explosives.
A few days later, investigators found that the young man had returned to the field, where they heard different explosions which confirmed the suspicions of the National Audience. It was then that entry and a search of his home were requested.
There, the police found the three elements with which the so-called “Mother of Satan” is made: acetone, hydrogen peroxide and sulfuric acid, as well as charcoal and a can of pipe unblocker.
The “explosive dryer”
In front of the cabinets in which they located these materials, the agents noticed that he had placed a type of “explosives dryer” on his desk. According to a Tedax, there were drying trays containing paper towels and remnants of explosives.
On this same table, the agents found “part of a bomb already assembled with shrapnel attached, ready for use, and which was only missing” the explosive necessary for its detonation. Additionally, there was also more sulfur and coal in the crates.
The magistrate reports that they were also able to locate notebooks in which there were notes indicating the chemical composition of the homemade explosives. Additionally, officers seized a machete, a military tactical vest with magazine holders, several carabiners, a first aid kit and a framed ISIS flag.
On his mobile phone, the police found files which, according to the judgment, encouraged jihad with the active and personal participation of the minor, including jihadist songs or images of weapons and explosives. Discussions were also discovered on the Telegram messaging application between the minor and several defendants. In one of these conversations, the convict claimed that he was going to “blow up a police station”.
Furthermore, he also boasted of having manufactured TNT, gunpowder or nitroglycerin and expressed his desire “to have a missile made of sugar, potassium nitrate or acetone peroxide”. “Martyr, God willing,” he sent to one of his contacts along with a photo of himself.
Friendless and raised between violence and deprivation
The juvenile judge indicates in the judgment that the minor had neither friends nor social support from those around him and that he had various coexistence conflicts. On a personal level, assures the magistrate, he was exposed to situations of serious violence and a significant lack of basic necessities.
These circumstances, according to him, shaped “a personality characterized by great emotional and cognitive resistance and a normalization of violence”. The minor, who accepts the decision, appears resentful and has a strong perception of injustice and social conflict, which leads him to have “a high level of indifference” towards society.
The legal sources consulted indicate that this is one of the 34 minor cases opened by this Court in 2024, and that they are in addition to the 26 opened last year.
