Lesson learned? Teen Daesh recruiter paraded around in burka as punishment

Published September 6th, 2015 - 07:00 GMT
Al Bawaba
Al Bawaba

These dramatic pictures show the moment a teenager wearing a burqa was paraded down a Spanish street after being arrested for allegedly recruiting other women to fight for ISIS in Syria.

The 18-year-old Moroccan, clad in the full-length Islamic robe and veil, was led down the crowded road in Gandia, near Valencia, after being detained by counter-terror police.

Dozens of locals watched as armed officers stood guard outside the young woman's door, while other policemen wore balaclavas as they carried away boxes of evidence from inside.

Police arrested her on suspicion of using the internet to recruit other women to join ISIS.

At the time of her arrest, the woman 'was making the last preparations for her journey' to Syria, a police statement said. 

She was the latest in a series of suspected ISIS sympathisers detained in Spain in the last year, with another woman arrested on the island of Lanzarote for allegedly recruiting women and girls in July.

More than 100 people from Spain are thought to have joined jihadist fighters in Iraq and Syria, with the authorities fearing that some could return to Europe to launch attacks.

In March 2004, Al-Qaeda inspired bombers blew up four packed commuter trains in Madrid, killing 191 people.

More than 20 people, including a number of Moroccans, were convicted of that attack.

Police said the woman arrested today was Moroccan but had lived in Spain for years.

Officers arrested her 'for suspected links with jihadist terrorist activities,' a statement from the Guardia Civil said.

The statement continued: 'She spread jihadist ideology on the Internet, justifying terrorist acts and spreading videos that glorified executions of people.

'She had focussed her online activity on recruiting women to go and swell the ranks of Daesh (ISIS).' 

By Ollie Gillman

Subscribe

Sign up to our newsletter for exclusive updates and enhanced content