Spain: Police hold convicted killer for Daesh activity

By Alyssa McMurtry

MADRID (AA) – Spanish police on Tuesday arrested a former member of an illegal paramilitary group for his alleged support for Daesh.

An Interior Ministry statement revealed the suspect -- who the Spanish police consider “very dangerous” -- had been convicted of murder in 1984.

The man was arrested on Tuesday in Segovia, central Spain “for indoctrination in religious extremism… spreading Daesh propaganda and having the determination to carry out a terrorist attack,” according to the ministry.

The suspect, born in Spain’s Basque Country, had traveled to Afghanistan, Syria and Palestine, where he expressed a willingness to carry out suicide attacks, according to the Spanish authorities.

He had also been increasingly active on social networks since last summer.

The man's murder conviction was for the killing of railway worker Jean Pierre Leiba in France in the name of GAL (Antiterrorist Liberation Groups).

GAL was an illegal paramilitary group reportedly backed by some officials in the Spanish state to fight ETA, the Basque separatist terror organization.

GAL is accused of killing 28 people between 1983 and 1987.