Saad Hussain Rizvi

The beheading of French teacher Samuel Paty outside his school in October 2020 shocked the whole world. Police shot dead his killer, Chechen-born refugee Abdouallakh Anzorov, the same day, but the attack soon found its echo in the jihadist networks of various countries. In the case of Spain, the Audiencia Nacional is investigating five young men believed to belong to the radical Tehreeke-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) party founded by Pakistani fundamentalist Khadim Hussain Rizvi.

“The terrorists who were glorified included Zaheer Hassan Mahmood, who attacked two people with a knife outside the editorial office of the Charlie Hebdo newspaper in Paris, France, on September 25, 2020, and Abdullah Abuyedovic Anzorov, who beheaded French teacher Samuel Paty outside the Bois d’Aulne school in Conflans Sainte-Honorine, north-east Paris, France, on October 16, 2020.” The suspects were arrested on February 24, according to a warrant leaked to El Confidencial. By posting on Tik Tok, Facebook or Instagram, they were portrayed as “heroes of Islam,” according to investigators.

Among those arrested is Ullah Shoaib, a 31-year-old Pakistani living in Andalusia. After the investigator testified as a witness on February 24, Magistrate Joaquín Gadea ordered his pre-trial detention without bail: “There is a reasonable risk of flight and the de facto thwarting of the access of justice, as well as the risk of criminal recidivism,” warns the court order. In the absence of any progress in the investigation, the magistrate cites the possible offenses of glorifying terrorism via the internet, disseminating to incite terrorist offenses or recruiting to form a terrorist organization or to carry out terrorist actions.

In addition to its publications on social networks, the decision also highlights the evidence found in the seized devices: “a photo showing several machetes”, pictures of “assault rifles and light weapons”, a snapshot of the President of the French Republic, Emmanuel Macron, combined with the English word “headshot,” … “The risk of a repetition of the offense cannot be excluded, since the detainee cannot be denied the possibility of accessing social networks if fanatical and radical expressions have been identified which, taking into account the circumstances, could lead to terrorist actions”.

Shoaib appealed his detention, but the criminal division of the Audiencia Nacional rejected his arguments. “We must consider the large number of people reached by his postings when we take into account the fact that he operates or has operated at least five profiles on social networks,” they warned in a decision issued on March 29. “Although some of these profiles conceal the number of followers, there is evidence that at least 1,135 profiles are associated with him.”

From these accounts, the accused allegedly shared “a large number of videos” by a Pakistani preacher, characterized by their content, “in which he repeatedly calls for the beheading or killing of people who, in his opinion, blaspheme or insult the Prophet Mohamed.” Among the phrases heard or seen in their publications, the investigators mention the following: “Until the Day of Judgement, if anyone speaks ill of the Prophet, he is condemned to death”; “the punishment of the delinquent is only one” (the people in the background reiterate: behead) and “headless sacrilegious people, today two Pakistanis who love the Prophet have come to stab four infidels.”

In its ten pages, the court order describes the radical party Tehreek e-Labbaik Pakistan, which was founded by the above-mentioned preacher “with the aim of enforcing the blasphemy law in Pakistan and punishing it with death anywhere in the world.” Together with the preacher’s son, Saad Hussain Rizvi, they “worked hard to attract new followers and support” for which “they often exploit and manipulate the religious sentiments of their followers.”

The magistrate compared them to “other terrorist organizations such as Al-Qaeda or Daesh,” as reported by the General Commissariat for Information and its provincial brigades in Granada, Jaén and Murcia. In the absence of further investigation, the investigation led to the arrest of the five young men: