A Spanish court has ordered the immediate pre-trial detention of a Moroccan national following a trio of attacks across the Vega de Acá district of Almería last Tuesday.
The ruling came after the suspect was brought before the court on April 24. He faces three counts of attempted robbery with violence and an additional charge of assault after targeting multiple victims within a matter of minutes.
According to investigators cited by Diario de Almería, the violence began shortly before 9:40 p.m. near Avenida Cabo de Gata, where the suspect allegedly approached two couples at knifepoint as they left a restaurant, forcing them to flee and triggering an initial police response.
Moments later, the most serious assault unfolded when a 17-year-old student walking home was allegedly chased, grabbed, and thrown to the ground after the suspect demanded her phone. He is accused of pulling her hair, repeatedly kicking her, and stabbing her in the thigh during the struggle.
Her screams alerted nearby residents, whose intervention forced the attacker to flee.
A third victim was then targeted shortly afterward near a gym on Vega de Acá Avenue. Police say the suspect kicked a woman off her motorcycle at a traffic light and attempted to intimidate her with the knife before she escaped into a nearby building.
Police officers later found the suspect hiding in bushes in a nearby vacant lot and arrested him. A knife with a wooden handle was recovered, along with a watch believed to have been stolen during the attacks.
Witnesses said the suspect pleaded with officers during his arrest, asking to be sent back to his home country rather than prison.
The injured teenager was taken to Torrecárdenas University Hospital, where she was treated for multiple bruising and a stab wound to her left thigh. Medical reports indicate she required several days to recover and suffered significant psychological distress following the attack.
In ordering his detention without bail, the investigating judge cited a high risk of flight, noting the suspect had no fixed address and was in Spain without legal status. The court also highlighted the seriousness of the alleged offenses and the likelihood of a substantial prison sentence if convicted.
The attacker is expected to be sentenced next month.
The precise immigration history of the suspect is unknown, other than that he is living in Spain illegally. However, had he been living in Spain for six months with no previous criminal conviction, such an individual would have been eligible for Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s mass amnesty.
The left-wing Spanish government recently approved the regularization of what some say could be up to 1.6 million illegal migrants currently living in Spain. The decision was made by government decree, thus bypassing any parliamentary oversight.
Last month, a 45-year-old Moroccan migrant was arrested for a violent axe attack in the southern Spanish town of Montefrío that left two women in critical condition and another victim injured.
La Bandera reported that the suspect made a statement while in custody, claiming he had “heard the call of Allah” and that “all Christians must die,” suggesting a terror motive to the attack.
Santiago Abascal, leader of the populist Vox party, accused Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and the state broadcaster Televisión Española (TVE) of suppressing information about the incident.
In February, a 27-year-old Moroccan migrant was arrested on suspicion of raping and murdering a 54-year-old Spanish woman in Barakaldo, near the city of Bilbao in the Basque region.
