This was announced by the president of the court that tried him, Judge Alfonso Guevara, who declared the sentence final after the accused recognize the facts and that the parties have announced that they will not appeal the decision. “He will be expelled immediately,” the judge said.
With his hands behind his back, white pants and a gray short-sleeved t-shirt, the accused nodded after the magistrate explained to him that both The prosecution and the prosecution asked him for 3 years and 8 months in prison for an alleged offense of damage for terrorist purposes.
According to the indictment of the Public Prosecutor’s Office, to which Europa Press had access, the accused was in an irregular situation in Spain when the events occurred. Waris arrived in Italy in 2023, “where he acquired legal residence”, although he had already gone through a “profound and latent radicalization process” in his native country.
The document also indicates that in May 2023, the accused asked a trusted person for a firearm of the Mauser brand. When asked why he wanted to acquire it, he replied: “When I do, you will know, everyone will know. Get me this thing. God forgive me, I have never killed anyone for money. I want it, you will know why.”
However, the prosecutor highlights the month of October 2023, “coinciding with the Hamas attack against Israel”, where the accused “concentrates his activity around the Palestinian cause in a radical and violent dimension”.
From then on, Waris intensified the searches your phone for content related to “death, heaven and martyrdom”while contacting people online who are “similar in his radical ideology with whom he shares his ideology and goals.”
The defendant considered traveling to Palestine on October 17, 2023 and asked one person if there were “police or barriers preventing people from getting there.” Two days later, he posted a video on TikTok with a pro-Palestine slogan in which “nasheed” – a type of music in Islamic culture – was considered “jihadist”.
Faced with the difficulties of moving to Palestine, the man began to consider “other options regarding his personal jihad,” according to the text.
So, he contacted an “academic” from his homeland and asked: “If a person damages or destroys McDonald’s in Pakistan, what is the “fatwa” (verdict) for that person? Is this considered jihad or chaos in the country? You need to ask this question and tell me.
The man arrived in Spain at the beginning of December 2023. On the 9th of this month he set a goal of taking up to 36 photos of the establishment.
Between this month of December and the day of the attack, Waris published content on the Internet with expressions used “in jihadist ideology”, kept information on “boycott actions” against McDonald’s and searched for models of axes, like the one he ended up using, “with a blade of more than eleven centimeters and weighing 763 grams”, according to the prosecution.
He attacked because he saw the “dead Palestinian children”
On March 27, 2024, the accused went to the shopping center where the restaurant was located and, around 7:30 p.m., took out a Palestinian scarf and he tied it around his neck “like a prior liturgy”, specifies the public prosecutor.
Ax in hand, he heads “suddenly towards the catering area”, where he begins “to strike axes on an entire wall of mirrors and several glass display casesbreaking the windows and causing the people, adults and children who were there, to flee in terror, provoking a climate of collective terror and hysteria.” The damage caused was expertly assessed at an amount of 7,602.74 euros.
“The subject was intercepted by a citizen who, exposing his physical integrity, grabbed him from behind and managed to immobilize him. An agent of the Mossos d’Esquadra, on leave, arrived later, until other security agents and police arrived,” explains the prosecutor. Once in the hands of the Police, the accused explained “that He acted moved because he saw the dead Palestinian children on his cell phone in the hands of the Americans. »
After the attack, Waris was arrested and brought to trial before the Investigative Court Number 4 of Badalona, which ordered his entry into provisional prison on March 29, 2024, where he remains until now after the AN ratified the decision of the trial judge.
His brother advised him not to do it alone.
The indictment states that the defendant’s brother became angry with him when he learned that he was “I’m thinking about doing jihad”. Just an hour before the attack, Waris sent him a “farewell” video in his native language, in which he said: “I can’t take it anymore, I’m going to take down the McDonald’s in Spain. Say hello to everyone for me. If God wants it and I’m still alive, see you soon and if I’m not alive, pray for me so that God grants me paradise.
The brother agreed with him, but ordered him to form a group of 8 or 10 people because “one person can’t do anything” and because it would be “like inviting death.”
“Jihad is obligatory and everyone has to do jihad, but you have to go as a team. If one person appears in front of 100 people, obviously one person cannot kill 100 of them. One person alone cannot do much either, so first create a team, form a group, contact all the boys and ask if anyone wants to take part in this jihad,” the brother argued.
And, to illustrate this, he explained to her that if someone told him to “stand in front of a car, nothing would happen to the car,” but it would run him over.
He ends by telling him that he won’t stop him, but advises him to “create a team” before attacking. This message, believes the prosecutor, “does not succeed in dissuading him from carrying out the action alone”.
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