ACOM files two criminal complaints for glorification of terrorism against Samidoun and the organizers of the 4 and 7 October events in Madrid and Barcelona

ACOM – Action and Communication on the Middle East has filed, before the Investigating Section of the Central Court of Instance, sitting on duty, two criminal complaints for the offence of glorification of terrorism and humiliation of its victims (Article 578.1, 2 and 3 of the Criminal Code), and has asked for urgent precautionary measures.

The first is directed against the Internationalist Anti-Imperialist Front (FAI), Madrid with Palestine, Samidoun – Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network (“Samidoun Spain”), its coordinator in Madrid, Jaldía Abubakra Aueda, and those responsible for calling the so-called “Resistance Bloc” for today, 4 October, in Madrid, and for the event planned for 7 October at the San Carlos Borromeo Pastoral Centre. The second is directed against Samidoun, against Jaldía Abubakra Aueda, and against those responsible for the Barcelona call for the same 7 October, at 19:00, in Plaça de la Universitat. Because the facts are connected, ACOM has asked that the two cases be joined.

What is being pursued is not criticism of Israel, but the public celebration of a massacre. On 7 October 2023, Hamas, with the participation of Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), killed 1,189 people and kidnapped 251. Among the dead are two Spaniards: Iván Illarramendi and Maya Villalobo. It was the day on which the most Jews were murdered since the Shoah.

The organizers do not disguise it. The Madrid call describes that attack as a “prodigious and daring offensive” and an “act of resistance” that “changed the world,” and urges people to join the “Axis of Resistance” — the name of the coalition that includes Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah — in the week of its third anniversary. The poster reproduces the paraglider with which the terrorists reached the Nova festival, the inverted red triangle with which Hamas marks its targets, and armed, masked figures. The 7 October event in Madrid is titled “Al-Aqsa Flood, flood of liberation” and lists as guests two people sentenced to six and nine life terms. The Barcelona event is advertised as “3 years since Tufan al-Aqsa. Always with the Palestinian Resistance!”, with paragliders and the same triangle. In 2025, Samidoun closed the account of its equivalent event in Barcelona with the slogans “Long live 7 October!” and “Long live armed Arab anticolonial resistance!”

Samidoun is not a prisoners’ solidarity group. The US Treasury Department has designated it an international fundraising front for the PFLP and, on 19 May 2026, sanctioned its European coordinator, Mohammed Khatib, and its Madrid coordinator, Jaldía Abubakra. Germany banned its activity and dissolved Samidoun Deutschland on 2 November 2023, among other reasons for having celebrated the 7 October massacre. Canada added it to its list of terrorist entities on 15 October 2024 and dissolved its federal registration on 27 March 2026. Israel designated it a terrorist organization in February 2021, as an overseas front of the PFLP. The Dutch Parliament asked that it be added to the national list. In Spain it continues to operate freely.

The PFLP, the organization that network serves, appears on the European Union list of terrorist persons, groups and entities, which applies directly in Spain (Council Decision (CFSP) 2026/1882 of 30 July 2026), and is designated as such by the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Israel. It is not a historical file. It took part in the 7 October 2023 attack and maintains its armed activity. It has already killed on European soil: the attack on the El Al plane in Athens (1968), the one in Zurich (1969), the 1968–1970 aircraft-hijacking campaign and, in Madrid, the murder on 3 March 1980 of the lawyer Adolfo Cotelo Villarreal, recognized by the Interior Ministry as a victim of the PFLP. And it still operates from this continent: in May 2026 the Israel Police and the Shin Bet made public that a PFLP leader living in France recruited and directed, throughout 2024 and 2025, a terrorist cell from European territory.

ACOM has asked for the immediate removal of the posters and the calls, for notice to be given to the Government Delegation in Madrid and to the Interior Department of the Catalan Government, and for the precautionary suspension of the Samidoun and Resistance Bloc events planned for 4 and 7 October.

Celebrating the anniversary of a massacre, under the name its authors gave it and with the image of the means by which they carried it out, humiliates the victims and their families. ACOM will continue to expose those who turn hate speech into an apology for terrorism and into a real threat, including on Spanish soil.

Original (Spanish): ACOM press release, 4 October 2026