(AFP) A Spanish court on Thursday handed jail terms of up to 53 years to three men who helped the jihadists behind the 2017 Barcelona attacks that killed 16 people.
The Islamic State (IS) group claimed the bloodshed of August 17-18, 2017, when pedestrians were mown down by a van in Barcelona and others were attacked at a nearby seaside town as Europe was battered by a string of jihadist attacks.
Following a three-month trial which began in November, the National Court convicted Mohamed Houli Chemlal, 24, and Driss Oukabir, 32, of belonging to the terror cell behind the attacks, handing them sentences of 53 years and 46 years, respectively.
They were also convicted of the manufacture and possession of explosives and terror-related harm and damage, but cleared of 14 counts of terrorist murder and other charges in a ruling of more than 1,000 pages.
