Three face trial for roles in 2017 Barcelona attacks that killed 16

Three men stood trial in Madrid this week for their roles in the 2017 Barcelona terror attacks, though none of them drove the vehicles or wielded the weapons that killed sixteen people and wounded roughly 140 others across two separate incidents that summer. Driss Oukabir, Mohamed Houli Chemlal, and Said Ben Iazza are accused instead of being part of the extremist cell that planned and enabled the violence. They have spent the past three years in preventive custody awaiting this moment. Prosecutors are seeking sentences ranging from eight years to four decades.

On August 17, 2017, a van accelerated into Las Ramblas, Barcelona's most famous boulevard, packed with tourists and locals on an ordinary afternoon. The driver plowed through the crowd, killing several people instantly and injuring many more before abandoning the vehicle and fleeing on foot. Hours later, members of the same cell carried out a second attack in Cambrils, a nearby beach resort town, using another vehicle in the same manner. Police confronted and shot dead all six people who directly carried out the attacks.

The trial opened with video evidence that prosecutors say shows the defendants preparing explosives, laughing and joking as they worked, while making threats about carrying out terror attacks. The footage places Houli Chemlal directly in the frame, handling materials and participating in the group's talk of violence. When questioned about this video after his arrest, Houli Chemlal told authorities he had been instructed what to say and that he disagreed with what the cell ultimately did. On Tuesday, when prosecutors tried to question him about his role, he declined to answer. Instead, he told the court he regretted the attacks.

Two members of the cell, including an imam believed to have led the group, died in an explosion at a country house where they were manufacturing explosives in the hours before the vehicle attacks began. Houli Chemlal was present during that blast and was injured in it. The attackers who carried out the Las Ramblas and Cambrils operations were armed with knives and wore explosive belts that turned out to be fake.

The trial will now move through evidence and testimony to determine what role each of the three defendants played in organizing, supporting, or enabling the cell's operations. The range of sentences prosecutors are requesting—from eight years to forty-one years—suggests significant differences in what they believe each man's culpability to be. The verdict will turn on questions of knowledge, intent, and participation in a network rather than in the attacks themselves.