Three of the nine preachers expelled from Spain in 2025 over suspected jihadist radicalisation had links to Girona province, according to the Balance of Terrorism in Spain 2025 by the Centre Memorial de les Víctimes del Terrorisme, Spain’s memorial centre for victims of terrorism.

The cases identify activity in La Jonquera, Figueres and Olot. For residents of those towns, the report places three Girona-linked cases among nine expelled preachers nationwide, not among all people expelled during the year.

Spanish authorities expelled at least 25 people suspected of jihadist radicalisation activities in 2025. Nine were preachers, including both officially appointed imams and people who performed the role informally, the assessment states.

La Jonquera and Figueres mosque cases

Houmat Bouzelmat, director of the Al Firdaous mosque in La Jonquera, was expelled on 10 January. The Guardia Civil, Spain’s national police force with responsibility for border and rural areas, had investigated him for months on terrorism allegations and for publishing online messages contrary to constitutional values.

Mohamed Azougah was expelled on 16 January after courts rejected appeals against the measure. He had acted as an imam at a mosque in Figueres’ Marca de l’Ham neighbourhood, from which he had spread radical Salafist messages, according to the assessment.

A resident of Olot was also expelled after the government considered him a danger to security, the report says. The document lists five expelled preachers as having operated in Catalonia, while two had operated in Navarra and two in Andalusia.

National arrest total remained below the 2004 peak

Separate figures reported by anti-terrorism sources put the 2025 total at 100 arrests in 64 operations by the Policía Nacional, Guardia Civil and Mossos d’Esquadra, Catalonia’s regional police force. The figures were collected up to 17 December.

  • 100 people were arrested in 2025, compared with 81 in 2024.
  • The 2025 figure was the highest recorded since the 11-M Madrid train bombings in 2004.
  • The 2004 total remains higher, at 131 arrests.
  • Catalonia recorded 33 arrests, nearly one in three of the national total reported by the anti-terrorism sources.

Police and other authorities removed 5,400 links to jihadist content during 2025, according to the same account of the operations.

Reported by diaridegirona.cat, Guillermo Altarriba Vilanova, Guillem RS, EFE, Juan José Fernández, Diari de Girona.