Abdelbaki Es Satty ( 1973 – 16 August 2017 ) was an imam in Ripoll who was born in Morocco in 1973 and arrived in Spain in 2002 . On 21 August , he was confirmed to have died in an accidental explosion in Alcanar on 16 August , which began the 2017 Barcelona attacks . Satty is believed to have been the mastermind of the planned attacks and to have radicalised the twelve terrorists responsible into the Takfir wal-Hijra sect , which allows adherents to copy typically " Western " behaviour often forbidden in Islam in order to conceal their radicalisation and terror plans . However , he was also serving as an informant to Spain 's intelligence agency , CNI
2017 Barcelona attacks
2017 Barcelona attacks
Abdelbaki Es Satty