Mehrez Ayari was arrested on June 6 in the Netherlands. The Spanish National Court confirmed the information on Wednesday June 19, recalling that it had issued an international arrest warrant against him. The 37-year-old young man is believed to be the author of the missed shot against the former president of the People’s Party (PP), founding member of the far-right Vox party and former vice-president of the European Parliament. On November 9, this Frenchman of Tunisian origin, arrested by the courts in the Netherlands and France, shot Vidal-Quadras in broad daylight in Madrid before fleeing on his motorcycle.
According to investigators, he left Spain via Portugal after his crime. His arrest in the Netherlands followed another assassination attempt in which he was allegedly involved. Before the Franco-Tunisian, a woman subject to an arrest warrant issued by the Spanish authorities was arrested on April 30 in the Netherlands for her alleged involvement in this attack. In January, a Venezuelan citizen who was also the subject of an international search warrant for terrorist crimes in Spain, was arrested at the Colombian border.
Read: The shadow of the Mocro Maffia in the attack against a Spanish politician
Three other suspects were arrested in Spain. In total, six people have already been arrested in connection with this case. Investigators are looking for a Moroccan who may have played a key role in the commission of this attack. During a press conference held in Madrid on February 23, Alejo Vidal-Quadras accused Iran of being behind his assassination attempt. “I have no doubt about the fact that it was the Iranian regime,” he insisted, inviting investigators to explore this avenue, even if “it is not easy to establish the relationship between detained hitmen and the Iranian regime.”
The Spanish politician is convinced of this thesis because of his support for dissidents in the Iranian regime. Investigators now favor this hypothesis, sources indicate. Europa Press, specifying that the Iranian authorities would have entrusted this mission to the Mocro Maffia which in turn recruited Mehrez Ayari to commit the crime. Unfortunately or fortunately, this 37-year-old Franco-Tunisian missed his target. The investigation is continuing.
