Lawyers for the Spanish Yolanda Martínez and Luna Fernández, two wives of jihadists repatriated from northern Syria in January 2023, are in talks with the Prosecutor’s Office of the National Court to try to reach an agreement, as reported by multiple legal sources. Has been confirmed. Closing a deal would allow the women to receive the reduction in prison sentence that the Public Ministry is requesting for them – it has already announced that, in principle, it would reduce the prison sentence to six years in a future trial. Will demand jail. For their part, the charges will help both defendants identify the facts and crimes with which they are charged.
Sources in the prosecutor’s office associate these conversations with the defense as part of their normal activity. Conformity agreements are not uncommon in trials conducted on jihadism in court. The court has not yet set a date for the oral hearing against the two extradited women.
Yolanda Martínez and Luna Fernández, who landed in the Torrejón de Ardoz military base (Madrid) in January 2023 with 13 children in their care (nine of whom were their biological children), were released last week after spending almost half a year in provisional prison. Was given. One year and nine months. The National Court agreed to his release, concluding that his “circumstances” had changed and he “is not currently considered a flight risk.” The Prosecutor’s Office supported this decision, which was rejected by the Association of Victims of Terrorism (AVT), which has presented itself as a popular accuser.
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In its indictment, dated September 4 and to which EL PAÍS had access, the Prosecutor’s Office accused both women of the crime of joining a terrorist organization, in addition to demanding for them six years in prison and five years of liberty The Public Ministry details that Fernandez and Martínez “voluntarily” moved with their husbands to the “Syrian-Iraqi conflict zone” to join the Islamic State (ISIS) in June 2014: “sharing the same fate as them and accepting Do,” the writing reads.
But, according to Prosecutor Carlos Bautista, both accused had begun their activities in favor of ISIS before moving to Syria. Her husband was linked to the Al Andalus Brigade, a jihadist cell that was dismantled soon after they moved to the Asian country in 2014. And they had a “major”, “key” and “leadership” role within the group of wives of the members of the said brigade.
Regarding their “roles” in Syria, the Public Ministry emphasizes: “While one of them helped and supported the activity of her husband, who was a member of a jihadist court within the Islamic State, the other Helped and supported the activity of, a rower [del grupo terrorista]“Those investigated always showed a desire to become members of Daesh. Only the complete loss of territorial control in Syria and Iraq, which Daesh had to suffer after the siege and fall of the Syrian city of Baghuz – the last stronghold in which they voluntarily remained to the end – as well as the living conditions in the Al Hawl reception camp, that is The reason was that both investigators requested to return to Spain,” says the prosecutor.
In 2019, EL PAÍS located and interviewed both women in the Al Hol refugee camp. Fernandez told this newspaper: “I am Muslim and I will not deny my religion. And just as many countries make their own laws, Allah has made a law and He knows, we do not know.” Some statements that the Prosecutor’s Office repeats in its writing, where it adds: “These words reflect the internalization of radical and extremist approaches to Islam, where Shariat Or Islamic law prevails over the laws of countries.”
In the same interview, Yolanda Martínez says: “He came without knowing. But I was very happy. They gave us a house and gave my husband a job to run the ISIS court. “Finally our financial situation has stabilized.” In this regard, the prosecutor assured: “This demonstration is an indication of their membership in the organization, because only its members were given houses and jobs in the administration that the pseudo-caliphate was developing.”
Lawyers for the defendants – one of whom has already submitted his defense brief to the National Court for a future hearing – say there is insufficient evidence against them. “With this determination [que las excarceló]Eliminates a decision that was unfair from the beginning, because falling in love with a person does not make you his partner,” Luna Fernández’s lawyer, Juan Manuel Martín Calvente, said after her release last week. Despite this, according to sources close to both women, reaching an agreement with the prosecutor’s office would remove the risk of the court sentencing them to a higher sentence and, in addition, would reduce the likelihood of them returning to prison for a long period of time . He has already served one year and nine months in preventive custody.