AN ENDURING THREAT: EUROPE’S ISLAMIST TERROR NETWORKS THEN AND NOW Finsbury Park Mosque: 938 -! Abu Qatada [Sliti frequented Finsbury Park Mosque and it has been 939 suggested Qatada acted as a mentor to Sliti there]. -! Other: Dahmane Abd el-Sattar, Bouraoui El-Ouaer [Also known as Karim Touzani and Kacen 940 Bakkali, Sliti aided the two men, who assassinated Ahmad Shah Massoud, in travelling to 941 942 Afghanistan and trafficked passports linked to the assassination]; ‘E’ [A Tunisian former Control Order subject, ‘E’ provided accommodation and false documentation for Sliti in the UK, 943 and he and his network were connected to the men who assassinated Ahmad Shah Massoud]; Hisham Bin Amor Sliti [Cousin. Hisham lived with Mohammed and followed him to Afghanistan. Convicted in absentia in relation to the NATO airbase plot network trial, he was 944 held in Guantanamo Bay and transferred to Slovakia in November 2014]. TAREK BEN HABIB MAAROUFI Role: 945 Tried as part of the NATO airbase plot network, and convicted of “recruiting militants and trafficking false passports” in connection with the assassination of Ahmad Shah Massoud.946 Bio 947 : A Tunisian-born Belgian citizen living in Brussels, Maaroufi is believed to have become involved in violent Islamist militancy as early as 1991, when he associated with Rachid Ramda, a GIA commander 948 in Europe. He was convicted of involvement in GIA arms trafficking in 1995 and sentenced to three years in prison, though appears to have only served one before being released, allegedly going on to recruit militants to travel to Chechnya. He travelled to Afghanistan in 2000, where he was involved in the 949 formation of the TCG. On his return, he appears to have had knowledge of the Strasbourg plot, being 950 recorded by Italian police discussing their arrests, and was involved in recruiting extremists including one of Ahmad Shah Massoud’s killers. He was arrested in December 2001951 and tried as part of the NATO airbase plot network. He was convicted of “recruiting militants and trafficking false passports” in connection with the assassination of Ahmad Shah Massoud in September 2003 and sentenced to six years 952 in prison. He was stripped of Belgian citizenship in 2009 before being released and returned to Tunisia ! ! 938 Roy, O., ‘The Second Wave: Western Muslims’, PBS Frontline, 2004, available at: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/front/etc/roy.html, last visited: 9 August 2016. 939 Simcox, R. et al., ‘Islamist Terrorism: The British Connections’, The Henry Jackson Society (2011), p. 351-2. 940 ‘France gives 5 who aided terrorism jail sentences of up to 7 years’, The New York Times, 17 May 2005, available at: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/17/international/europe/france-gives-5-who-aided-terrorism-jail-sentences-of-up.html?_r=0, last visited: 9 August 2016. 941 Roy, O., ‘The Second Wave: Western Muslims’, PBS Frontline, 2004. 942 ‘Men jailed over Al Qaeda anti-NATO plot’, ABC News, 30 September 2003. 943 ‘Between: The Secretary of State for the home department –and- E’, England and Wales High Court (Administrative Court) Decisions, 16 February 2007. 944 ‘JTF-GTMO Detainee Assessment’, United States Department of Defense, 1 October 2008; and Scheinkman, A. et al., ‘Hisham Bin Ali Bin Amor Sliti’ in ‘The Guantanamo Docket’, The New York Times, available at: http://projects.nytimes.com/guantanamo/detainees/174-hisham-bin-ali-bin-amor-sliti, last visited: 9 August 2016. 945 ‘Major terror trial due in Belgium’, CNN International, 21 May 2003. 946 ‘Men jailed over Al Qaeda anti-NATO plot’, ABC News, 30 September 2003. 947 ‘A Nation Challenged: Milan; Italian Tapes Portray Young Arabs Operating on the Edges of Islamic Terror’, The New York Times, 29 October 2001. 948 ‘Men jailed over Al Qaeda anti-NATO plot’, ABC News, 30 September 2003. 949 Zelin, A., ‘Tarek Maaroufi: Tunisia's Most Notorious Jihadist, Returns Home’, Tunisialive, 1 April 2012, available at: http://www.tunisia- live.net/2012/04/01/tarek-maaroufi-tunisias-most-notorious-jihadist-returns-home/, last visited: 9 August 2016. 950 Tagliabue, J., ‘A NATION CHALLENGED: MILAN; Italian Tapes Portray Young Arabs Operating on the Edges of Islamic Terror’, International New York Times, 29 October 2001, available at: http://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/29/world/nation-challenged-milan-italian-tapes-portray-young-arabs-operating- edges.html?pagewanted=all, last visited: 9 August 2016. 951Escobar, P., ‘The Roving Eye: Part 4: Tracking al-Qaeda in Europe’, Asia Times Online, 13 July 2002. 952 ‘Men jailed over Al Qaeda anti-NATO plot’, ABC News, 30 September 2003. ! ! 75 !