MADRID: Spain’s top criminal court said Friday it had ordered psychiatric internment for a Moroccan man who murdered a church official in a 2023 machete attack that horrified the country.
Madrid’s Audiencia Nacional court dismissed terrorism charges for the attacks at two churches in the southern port city of Algeciras on January 25, 2023.
But it said in a statement that Yassin Kanjaa would spend up to 30 years in a penitentiary psychiatric establishment.
Prosecutors had sought 50 years in jail for Kanjaa on terrorism charges for killing a sacristan with machete blows to the head and neck at one church, and wounding a priest during mass at another.
They argued he had “undergone a process of radicalization, taking on board the most stringent Islamic theories which uphold its incompatibility with the principles and values of other religions and the need to act to eliminate them.”
The court said that, although the defendant had committed murder and attempted murder, expert reports showed the severity of his psychological disorders.
The experts said these disorders had caused the “impairment of his intellectual and volitional faculties” and so the court ruled out a terror motive.
At the time, Kanjaa had “a schizophrenic profile with an acute psychotic imbalance,” said the court.
The attacks were caused by a “delirious ideation of harm and messianic thoughts,” it added.
It had opted for psychiatric internment as the defendant “has no awareness of the offenses committed, nor does he show remorse, which represents a high level of danger,” the court added.
Kanjaa must pay 150,000 euros ($174,000) to the widow of the murdered sacristan, 50,000 euros to each of his two children and 17,000 euros to the relatives of the wounded priest.
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Spain orders psychiatric internment for 2023 church machete attacker
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Spain orders psychiatric internment for 2023 church machete attacker
- Madrid’s Audiencia Nacional court dismissed terrorism charges for the attacks at two churches in 2023
- It said Yassin Kanjaa would spend up to 30 years in a penitentiary psychiatric establishment
Zelensky holds ‘very substantive’ call with US envoys Witkoff and Kushner
KYIV: President Volodymyr Zelensky said Saturday he and his negotiators who are discussing a US-led plan for Ukraine had a “very substantive and constructive” call with US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner.
“Ukraine is committed to continuing to work honestly with the American side to bring about real peace,” Zelensky said on Telegram as the third day of the talks were to be held in Florida.
“We agreed on the next steps and the format of the talks with America,” he added.
Zelensky, who was in Kyiv, joined the call with top Ukrainian negotiator Rustem Umerov and Andriy Gnatov, the chief of staff of Kyiv’s armed forces, both of whom were in Miami for the talks with the US side.
The two Americans — Witkoff, who is US President Donald Trump’s special envoy, and Kushner, who is Trump’s son-in-law — had been meeting with Umerov and Gnatov since Thursday.
Trump’s team is trying to swiftly settle the conflict in Ukraine, which has run for nearly four years.
An initial US plan released two weeks ago was seen by Kyiv and its European allies as aligning too closely with many of Russia’s hard-line positions, and has since been revised.
Zelensky said the call with Witkoff and Kushner “focused on many aspects and quickly discussed key issues that could guarantee an end to the bloodshed and remove the threat of a third Russian invasion, as well as the threat of Russia failing to fulfil its promises, as has happened many times in the past.”
He said he was waiting a “detailed report” from Umerov and Gnatov.
“We cannot discuss everything over the phone, so we need to work in detail with the teams on ideas and proposals,” he added.
Zelensky said Ukraine’s approach to the negotiations was that “everything must be capable of working, every important thing for peace, security and reconstruction.”
French President Emmanuel Macon said on Saturday that he, Zelensky, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz would meet in London on Monday to “take stock” of the US-led negotiations.
“Ukraine is committed to continuing to work honestly with the American side to bring about real peace,” Zelensky said on Telegram as the third day of the talks were to be held in Florida.
“We agreed on the next steps and the format of the talks with America,” he added.
Zelensky, who was in Kyiv, joined the call with top Ukrainian negotiator Rustem Umerov and Andriy Gnatov, the chief of staff of Kyiv’s armed forces, both of whom were in Miami for the talks with the US side.
The two Americans — Witkoff, who is US President Donald Trump’s special envoy, and Kushner, who is Trump’s son-in-law — had been meeting with Umerov and Gnatov since Thursday.
Trump’s team is trying to swiftly settle the conflict in Ukraine, which has run for nearly four years.
An initial US plan released two weeks ago was seen by Kyiv and its European allies as aligning too closely with many of Russia’s hard-line positions, and has since been revised.
Zelensky said the call with Witkoff and Kushner “focused on many aspects and quickly discussed key issues that could guarantee an end to the bloodshed and remove the threat of a third Russian invasion, as well as the threat of Russia failing to fulfil its promises, as has happened many times in the past.”
He said he was waiting a “detailed report” from Umerov and Gnatov.
“We cannot discuss everything over the phone, so we need to work in detail with the teams on ideas and proposals,” he added.
Zelensky said Ukraine’s approach to the negotiations was that “everything must be capable of working, every important thing for peace, security and reconstruction.”
French President Emmanuel Macon said on Saturday that he, Zelensky, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz would meet in London on Monday to “take stock” of the US-led negotiations.
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