AN ENDURING THREAT: EUROPE’S ISLAMIST TERROR NETWORKS THEN AND NOW Associates and networks: -! The ‘Frankfurt Cell’: Mohamed Bensakhria, Slimane Khalfaoui, Rabah Kadre, Yacine Aknouche, Lazhar Ben Mohammed Tlili, Merouane Berrahal, Laurent Mourad Djoumakh, Samir Korchi, Nicolas Belloni [Convicted alongside as members of the ‘Frankfurt cell’ in 892 December 2004. Tcharek met Bensakhria several times and held numerous phone calls with 893 him]; Fouhad Sabour, Lamine Maroni, Salim Boukhari, Aerobi Beandali [‘Frankfurt cell’ 894 members convicted in March 2003]. LAURENT MOURAD DJOUMAKH: Convicted of involvement in the plot to bomb Strasbourg Christmas market alongside Mohamed Bensakhria, Slimane Khalfaoui, Rabah Kadre, Yacine Aknouche, Lazhar Ben Mohammed Tlili, Merouane Berrahal, Abdelkader Tcharek, Samir Korchi, and Nicolas 895 896 897 Belloni and is believed to have provided logistical support. Said Arif, an Algerian al-Qaeda operative, 898 travelled to Georgia in 2001 using Djoumakh’s passport. NICOLAS BELLONI: Convicted of involvement in the plot to bomb Strasbourg Christmas market alongside Mohamed Bensakhria, Slimane Khalfaoui, Rabah Kadre, Yacine Aknouche, Lazhar Ben Mohammed Tlili, Merouane Berrahal, Abdelkader Tcharek, Samir Korchi, and Laurent Mourad 899 Djoumakh and given three years with an 18 month suspension. Believed to have provided logistical 900 support. Belloni’s brother in law, Slimane Khalfaoui, was arrested alongside Belloni at his apartment in 901 Montefermeil, Paris, where stolen and falsified passports were discovered. Belloni’s home telephone 902 had also received calls from Rabah Kadre. 903 SAMIR KORCHI: A Moroccan national, Korchi, moved to France in the 1980s with his family. Convicted of involvement in the plot to bomb Strasbourg Christmas market alongside Mohamed Bensakhria, Slimane Khalfaoui, Rabah Kadre, Yacine Aknouche, Lazhar Ben Mohammed Tlili, Merouane Berrahal, Abdelkader Tcharek, Nicholas Belloni, and Laurent Mourad Djoumakh, he was 904 905 sentenced to four years in December 2004. He is believed to have provided logistical support and was 906 expelled to Morocco in April 2005 on completion of his sentence. MEROUANE BERRAHAL: Convicted of involvement in the plot to bomb Strasbourg Christmas market alongside Mohamed Bensakhria, Slimane Khalfaoui, Rabah Kadre, Yacine Aknouche, Lazhar Ben Mohammed Tlili, Nicholas Belloni, Abdelkader Tcharek, Samir Korchi, and Laurent Mourad ! ! 892 ‘French court convicts group in Strasbourg Christmas market bomb’, Agence France Presse, 16 December 2004. 893 ‘Algerian faces charges of conspiracy to commit terrorist acts’, Agence France Presse, 14 November 2001. 894 Boyes, R., ‘Algerians jailed for Christmas bomb plot’, The Times, 11 March 2003; and Tremlett, G., ‘Spanish police arrest Bin Laden suspect’, Guardian, 23 June 2001. 895 ‘French court convicts group in Strasbourg Christmas market bomb trial’ Agence France Presse, 16 December 2004. 896 ‘Jail for Strasbourg bomb plotters’, BBC News, 16 December 2004. 897Hafez, M., ‘Suicide Bombers in Iraq’, United States of Peace Press, 2007. 898 ‘Criminal Association in Relation to a Terrorist Undertaking’, Human Rights Watch, July 2008, available at: https://www.hrw.org/reports/2008/france0708/4.htm, last visited: 9 August 2016. 899 ‘French court convicts group in Strasbourg Christmas market bomb trial’, Agence France Presse, 16 December 2004. 900 ‘Jail for Strasbourg bomb plotters’, BBC News, 16 December 2004. 901 ‘Brothers-in-law, one considered key player, investigated in French Strasbourg bomb plot’, Associated Press International, 29 November 2002 902 ibid. 903 ‘In the Name of Prevention’, Human Rights Watch, 5 June 2007, available at: https://www.hrw.org/report/2007/06/05/name-prevention/insufficient-safeguards- national-security-removals, last visited: 9 August 2016. 904 ‘French court convicts group in Strasbourg Christmas market bomb trial’, Agence France Presse, 16 December 2004. 905 ‘Jail for Strasbourg bomb plotters’, BBC News, 16 December 2004. 906 ‘In the Name of Prevention’, Human Rights Watch, 5 June 2007. ! ! 72 !