Sleeper Cells Use Imo, Meta to Support Terrorism

Algiers’ Dar Baida Criminal Court of First Instance followed up six men from the Dellys region, on Wednesday, four of whom were jailed in the penal institution, who formed “sleeper” cells to support terrorist organizations in the world, acts of extremism and alleged jihad, spreading corruption and incitement to create chaos, through emails and pseudonyms on social networks.

The details of the file, according to what the court dealt with, were launched from investigations by the Anti-Terrorism and Cybercrime Squad, after monitoring suspicious accounts on “Facebook or Meta”, circulating video clips, publications and photos that incite violence and praise the terrorist acts of international organizations carrying takfiri and “jihadist” ideas.

Security research later found the identities of those involved, including a person named “K.K”, who was active on Facebook with the account of “Abu Al-Bara”. Security services found on his mobile phone pictures of weapons, military uniforms and the banner of Tawhid in black, which he used as a wallpaper and on his profile pictures.

The technical examination of the phone also revealed the presence of inflammatory “jihadist” songs, and it was found through the investigations that the accused was communicating with several people through the “Imo” and “Facebook” applications, where they circulated several publications aimed at encouraging acts of murder and violence, in addition, to publications that called for disobeying the ruler and incitement against the President of the Republic after a decision was issued to close mosques during the recent health crisis, as part of the measures taken against the Corona epidemic. This information was found by security services through an electronic account of a young volunteer in the Algerian Red Crescent.

Investigations revealed that the perpetrators were communicating with each other through the “Imo” application to evade the security monitoring of their publications.

The Public Prosecutor requested the imposition of penalties of between 7 and 5 years in prison, during his plea about the seriousness of the facts of the case, and the defendant’s arguments that the passages and publications circulated among them pertain to religious and jurisprudential lessons, merely evade criminal responsibility.