Overview
- The Audiencia Nacional closed hearings in the case of Yassine Kanjaa, accused of killing sacristan Diego Valencia and wounding two others in the January 2023 Algeciras church attacks.
- The Public Prosecutor maintained a 50-year request under terrorism charges and argued for a partial insanity mitigation rather than a full exculpation.
- An acusación popular representing 11‑M Afectados de Terrorismo shifted to request a complete insanity exoneration due to a psychotic disorder that experts said severely impaired his faculties.
- Most forensic psychiatrists testified that Kanjaa suffered an acute, likely schizophrenic psychosis with religious delusions, while a dissenting expert cited signs of awareness and radical intent such as switching off his phone and stashing the machete.
- Evidence reviewed at trial included rapid online religious activity before the attack and Kanjaa’s earlier statements about acting as a lone mujahid, set against expert claims that he believed he was fulfilling a moral mandate within a break from reality.