Al-Qaeda turns Algerian illegal migrant from thief into terrorist

A criminal court in Algiers Saturday will open the case file of an Algerian illegal migrant called Matthias who went to Italy to look for a job and joined Al-Qaeda.

• Matthias who met Ben Laden’s bodyguard was in charge of attacking Jewish temples in France and the European Union’s headquarters in Belgium in 2006. This plan was unsuccessful because he was arrested at Algiers’ airport in December 2006 as he was leaving Algeria.
•  Matthias, 30, is due to appear in court Saturday with two other suspects: C.Y. alias Salim and L. S. charged with belonging to a terrorist group working in Algeria and abroad.
• When arrested in 2006, C. Y. said he illegally travelled to Italy in 2000. Then, he used a fake passport to go to Spain where he was stealing for living. He had been jailed there until 2001 and decided to come back to France. He met people from Arab community in charge of preaching. He was impressed by “jihadi ideas” and attended meetings in mosques.
• In 2005, he entered Algeria where he met N. S. and talked with him about recruitment of volunteers for “jihad” in Iraq.
• Matthias contacted a large number of terrorists and collected money in France for armed groups.
• When he returned to Algeria in 2006, he met Y. C. alias Salim who gave him a password to meet terrorists in Tizi Ouzou province (100 km east of Algiers). Before going to France, he made a deal with terrorist N. C. to send volunteers from France to be trained and come back to attack Jewish temples in France and the EU’s headquarters in Belgium. Yet, Matthias was arrested in Algiers in 2006 trying to travel to France. He denied all his confession before examining judge.
• On the other hand, the second suspect C. Y. admitted that he joined terrorist groups in 1997 and met Matthias who gave him a military uniform to hand it over to terrorists in Tizi Ouzou. He also denied what he had previously said before the examining judge.
• For his part, the third suspect L. S. said he illegally migrated to Britain in October 1996 and met N. S. in 2003 who asked him to bring a sum of money from a person in France. He was arrested in his house in Algeria on December 15th, 2006.