After Barcelona | The Strategist

"The leader of the cell was 42-year-old Moroccan-born Abdelbaki Es Satty. In April 2014, after serving two years for drug-smuggling in Spain, Es Satty faced an expulsion order. He successfully contested it, arguing that expelling him would breach Spain’s commitment to international law. In November 2014, Es Satty lodged an application for asylum with Spanish authorities. While that was being considered, the Moroccan-born imam could travel within the EU’s Schengen states. In 2016, he headed to Belgium, where he became an imam of a mosque in Diegem. He left after three months because the mosque’s leader, Soliman Akaychouh, had asked him to produce evidence that he hadn’t been involved in any criminal activity, which he was unable to do.

In March 2016, Es Satty took up residence in the Girona town of Ripoll, where he became an imam in one of the two mosques in the city. He lived in a small flat and has been described as ‘a loner’ and ‘perfectly normal imam’. It’s reported that the town had found it hard to find an imam. Es Satty was hired even though Belgian authorities, alerted earlier by Akaychouh, had informed the Catalan interior ministry that they had concerns about him. It now appears that the Catalan regional police had visited the mosque on several occasions, though they never advised the president of the mosque that Es Satty had a criminal record. It remains unclear how the cell was formed, and whether it had direct or even indirect ties to IS, though one would assume that Es Satty and Abouyaaqoub met at the mosque where Es Satty was working, as Abouyaaqoub was a resident of Ripoll."