Spanish judge Ismael Moreno on Thursday opened an investigation into 10 Pakistani nationals detained last month in Barcelona and suspected of links to terrorist organisations, judicial sources said.
The 10, picked up on September 15, are not suspected of involvement in the March 11 train bombings in Madrid which killed 191 people in the country's worst ever terrorist attack.
However, Moreno is investigating them on the basis of information compiled by police since their arrest, the sources said.
When the 10 were detained police found them to be in possession of several videos, one of which, filmed in 2002, showed images of several well-known buildings in Barcelona, including the World Trade Center, and the Maremagnum leisure centre.
Judicial sources say the video images are not those normal tourists would take and that some footage shows imams calling for jihad ('holy war').
Spanish police believe the group are involved in drug trafficking and falsifying credit cards. They had a stash of several kilos (pounds) of cocaine on them as well as 18,000 euros (25,000 dollars) in cash when detained.
Two of the detainees are being sought by other states over allegations of petty crime - one by India and another by Germany.
Spanish authorities said after the 10 were hauled in that there appeared to be no link between them and Al-Qaeda or the Madrid bombers.
Most of the suspects held over the train blast are Moroccan.
Comments
Comments are closed.