Manhunt for Tehran’s Key Assassin Continues as Fugitive Hides in Iran, El Mundo Reports

Staff WriterJuly 12, 2025
Manhunt for Tehran’s Key Assassin Continues as Fugitive Hides in Iran, El Mundo Reports
Spanish police at the crime scene of the attempted assassination of Dr. Alejo Vidal-Quadras. Inset: Sami Bekal, the suspect linked to the Iran-backed terror plot.

Spanish police at the crime scene of the attempted assassination of Dr. Alejo Vidal-Quadras. Inset: Sami Bekal, the suspect linked to the Iran-backed terror plot.
Written by
Mahmoud Hakamian

More than 600 days after the attempted assassination of Spanish politician Dr. Alejo Vidal-Quadras, Spanish investigators believe the mastermind behind the plot—Sami Bekal, a Spanish-Moroccan national—is hiding in Iran under the protection of the Iranian regime, according to a detailed investigation by El Mundo published on July 10, 2025.

According to Judge Santiago Pedraz, who is overseeing the case in Spain’s Audiencia Nacional, “there are indications that Bekal traveled to Iran where he is currently in hiding and evading justice.” He is the only suspect in the case who remains at large.

The attack took place in broad daylight in central Madrid in November 2023. Dr. Vidal-Quadras, founder of the Vox party and a long-time supporter of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) was shot in the face. He survived the assassination attempt but underwent reconstructive jaw surgery and continues to suffer partial hearing loss and facial numbness.

“I came back from my morning walk in Retiro Park when a man approached me from behind and said, ‘Hello, sir.’ When I turned, the bullet hit my jaw instead of my throat. Witnesses say he tried to fire again, but the weapon jammed. I survived by sheer luck,” Vidal-Quadras recounted.

The shooter, Mehrez Ayari, a Tunisian-French hitman affiliated with the Mocro Maffia criminal network, has since been extradited from the Netherlands to Spain. Ayari is one of eight individuals indicted this week by Judge Pedraz for involvement in the assassination plot. Spanish police, working closely with Dutch and other European intelligence agencies, tied Ayari to the case through a web of surveillance footage, financial transactions, and forensic evidence.

Yet all leads point to Sami Bekal as the operation’s mastermind and the direct link to those who commissioned the killing. Judge Pedraz described Bekal as “the coordinator of the attack and the connection between the sponsors and the operatives.”

Bekal, also known by the aliases Pacho, Colomo, Pachito, and Swilleh, was born in 1997 in Palma de Mallorca and moved to the Netherlands at age 13. He is fluent in five languages and deeply embedded in European organized crime circles, particularly the Mocro Maffia.

According to psychological profiling cited by police who spoke to El Mundo, Bekal is “a camouflaged, high-functioning criminal, capable of manipulation, planning, and operating in hostile environments without emotional restraint.” His involvement in multiple contract killings across Europe and his documented ability to disappear suggest he has state-level protection.

Investigators have tracked Bekal’s movements across Colombia, Brazil, Turkey, Qatar, Morocco, and Spain. Crucially, he fled to Morocco on November 8, 2023—just 24 hours before the attack in Madrid—and subsequently disappeared. After the attempted murder, he received a chilling message: “Mission complete.”

Spanish and Dutch intelligence services suspect the Iranian regime’s involvement but lack conclusive proof. However, according to El Mundo, Vidal-Quadras said, “There is no doubt the Iranian regime is behind the attempt on my life. I have supported the NCRI for over two decades, and in 2022, I was placed at the top of an Iranian blacklist. I warned the Spanish government, but my alerts were not taken seriously.”

In a symbolic moment foreshadowing the attack, Iran’s state-affiliated Fars News Agency issued a warning to Spain just days before the incident, stating that “hosting the MEK would have consequences,” an implicit threat against Vidal-Quadras.

Bekal’s network used Spain as the staging ground. He brought Ayari from the Netherlands, arranged weapons and transport, and coordinated surveillance efforts from various locations in Andalucía. A motorcycle purchased in Málaga was later found burned in Fuenlabrada after the attack, another detail pointing to careful planning.

Authorities believe Bekal may also have played a role in other political assassinations linked to the Iranian regime, including the 2021 killing of Wisam Al-Albassi, an Iraqi DJ and dissident, in the Netherlands. Ayari was the shooter in that case as well.

Despite repeated warnings and a known pattern of Iranian assassination plots in Europe, Vidal-Quadras notes that “Spain did nothing until it was too late. Only now do I have proper protection.” He remains convinced that “the threat to my life will not end until the clerical regime in Iran falls.”

While seven individuals have now been charged in the operation, the man considered the key link between the killers and the ayatollahs remains beyond the reach of justice—hidden, it appears, by the very regime he serves.

Staff WriterJuly 12, 2025
Arab-Islamic Committee in Defence of Ashraf
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