The judge of Barbate (Cádiz) who has investigated the case for the serious attack in which the civil guards were killed by a drug boat on February 9, 2024 and four other agents were injured has agreed that a jury will judge the case and that Yassine El Morabet, one of the crew, will sit.
In an order, dated January 14 and released this Tuesday, the judge has agreed to close the investigation phase and open the trial procedure before the jury court.
The judge summoned all parties to an appearance this Monday, February 2, and has requested a bond of 3.3 million from Karim El Baqqaly to ensure compensation. The rest of the occupants of the boat, also detained, will be tried in another procedure.
The evidence collected means that El Baqqaly is provisionally facing two crimes of murder, four crimes of attempted murder, for the injuries he caused to the agents traveling in the boat, and six crimes of aggravated attack against authority. Morabet, considered an active collaborator because he pointed a laser pointer at the agents on several occasions, will be tried for six crimes of aggravated attack against authority.
The attack on the civil guards occurred after several temporary days in which six drug boats had taken refuge around the port of Barbate. Between 8:20 p.m. and 8:29 p.m. on February 9, six civil guards, dressed in official uniforms, boarded a Zodiac marked with the Civil Guard and identified themselves with lights and a luminous sign in front of the drug boats.
Karim El Baqqaly skippered one of them, specifically a 14-meter-long semi-rigid boat with four outboard engines of 300 HP each. Yassine El Morabet and the other two people who are being investigated in a separate procedure were also traveling on the boat. El Baqqaly’s boat was the only one, of the six there, that had four outboard motors and a satellite antenna.
According to the judicial report, El Baqqaly, who was piloting the boat, first made several approaches a few meters from the Civil Guard zodiac. Then it moved away “to a sufficient distance that allowed it to return to the exact place where the agents were at high speed and without deviating the trajectory to, finally, collide with it, entering with its bow from the port to starboard side of the official vessel.”
The instructor sees in the behavior of El Baqqaly, a “desire to attack the principle of authority and cause the death of the six agents who crewed it”, in addition to emphasizing that this action was carried out “with full knowledge of the difference in size and scope between both vessels” and knowing “the status of agents of authority of the people who crewed the zodiac and their limited possibilities of defending themselves from the attack.”
From El Morabet it is highlighted that, “in the moments before the collision”, “he focused a laser pointer on several occasions on the Civil Guard agents who were on board the zodiac, with the intention of attacking the principle of authority and reducing their vision and, therefore, their ability to defend and react.” The collision caused the deaths of “violent in nature,” the court document highlights, physical and psychological injuries of varying degrees to the other four agents, and damage to the boat valued at 22,942 euros.
