Algeria : “Abdellah Al Djazairi” sentenced to prison for terror charges

Algiers court yesterday started hearing an Algerian citizen and an active Al Qaeda member, whose name appears on the UN Security Council list as well as Interpol most wanted criminals.

Algiers court yesterday started hearing an Algerian citizen and an active Al Qaeda member, whose name appears on the UN Security Council list as well as Interpol most wanted criminals.

G. Ahmed , nicknamed Abdellah, bears a French –Algerian nationality has been arrested in March 31st 2006 at Algiers International Airport on his arrival. The criminal was indicted of being an Active member of Al Qaeda abroad

He holds a master in communication obtained from a European university.

Denying the charges in the beginning, this one avowed that he was operating within the former Islamic Armed Group (GIA) then left the country in 1994 to settle in Marseille , France with his family. In 1996, he met another Algerian citizen by the name of A. Bachir who leads a supporting network of the GIA, based in Milan , Italy , and asked to work under his command.

The main task of the man consisted in forging money and papers including passports and identity cards to facilitate the movements of wanted elements. During this period, he met a former Bosnian war veteran by the name of Lahbib Atunsi , who later on became an active member of Al Qaeda, as well as Algerians and Tunisians who served in this conflict.

The convict has been arrested for the first time in 1997 in Marseille on charges of being a terrorist group member to be released afterwards, than arrested for the second time in Italy . His acolyte, A. Bachir decided to serve in Afghanistan while Abdellah refused to, but never lost touch between each other.

In 1999, a small group comprising Algerians, Saudi and Moroccan operating within the Al Qaeda Organization were in charge of collecting money and send elements, most of them trained in Afghanistan , as well as supplying other terrorists operating in Chechnya with means of communications.

In 2001 the British authorities arrested two individuals from the group whereas the man was busted in Marseille following an international warrant issued by the Italian judicial authorities.

In 2003 , the convict served in Iraq under Abu Mosaab Ezerkaoui’s command to come back to Algeria in order to benefit from the national reconciliation’s measures , but this one has at the last moment denied all these facts in yesterday’s hearings.

The judge sentenced him to five years imprisonment.