AN ENDURING THREAT: EUROPE’S ISLAMIST TERROR NETWORKS THEN AND NOW Networks and associates: The ‘Frankfurt Cell’: -! Fouhad Sabour, Lamine Maroni, Salim Boukhari [Convicted alongside as 868 members of the ‘Frankfurt cell’ in March 2003]; Mohamed Bensakhria, Slimane Khalfaoui, Rabah Kadre, Yacine Aknouche, Lazhar Ben Mohammed Tlili, Abdelkader Tcharek, Merouane Berrahal, Laurent Mourad Djoumakh, Samir Korchi, Nicolas Belloni [‘Frankfurt cell’ members 869 convicted in December 2004]. -! Abu Doha network: Abu Doha [Doha was contacted by the cell members, with Boukhari 870 believed to be the main contact, to request more money in late December 2000]. 2.4 Frankfurt Cell: Accomplices LAZHAR BEN MOHAMMED TLILI Role: 871 Convicted of involvement in the plot to bomb Strasbourg Christmas market and is believed to 872 have provided logistical support. Bio: 873 A Tunisian national, who made a living dealing drugs, Tlili became involved with extremists while living in Milan in the 1990s and frequented an Islamic centre described by the US Treasury as an “al- Qaeda station house”. He travelled to Afghanistan for military training and received instruction in bomb- making and the use of weapons for ten months before losing a hand in an accident and returning to 874 Europe. He was arrested in France in 2002 over involvement in the Strasbourg plot, convicted of 875 “criminal association with a terrorist enterprise” in December 2004, and sentenced to five years in 876 prison. Tlili was extradited to Italy in 2006 over the procurement and selling of “military items” and entered Italian witness protection scheme in return for information on detainees in the US and Italy who 877 had attended Afghan training camps. He was released from prison in January 2007 and removed from 878 the UNSC al-Qaeda sanctions list in April 2015. Foreign training/combat: Received instruction in bomb-making and the use of weapons in training camps in Afghanistan. ! ! 868 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. 869 ‘French court convicts group in Strasbourg Christmas market bomb’, Agence France Presse, 16 December 2004. 870 Harris, P. et al., ‘Al-Qaeda's bombers used Britain to plot slaughter’, Guardian, 21 April 2002. 871 ‘French court convicts group in Strasbourg Christmas market bomb trial’, Agence France Presse, 16 December 2004. 872 ‘Jail for Strasbourg bomb plotters’, BBC News, 16 December 2004. 873 ‘French court convicts group in Strasbourg Christmas market bomb trial’, Agence France Presse, 16 December 2004. 874 ‘Tunisian May Hold Key to Guantanamo Trials’, CBS News, 13 November 2009, available at: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/tunisian-may-hold-key-to- guantanamo-trials/, last visited: 9 August 2016. 875 ‘Jail for Strasbourg bomb plotters’, BBC News, 16 December 2004. 876 ‘French court convicts group in Strasbourg Christmas market bomb trial’, Agence France Presse, 16 December 2004. 877 ‘Tunisian May Hold Key to Guantanamo Trials’, CBS News, 13 November 2009. 878 ‘Security Council Al-Qaida Sanctions Committee Deletes Six Individuals from Its Sanctions List’, United Nations Security Council Press Release, 30 April 2015, available at: http://www.un.org/press/en/2015/sc11878.doc.htm, last visited: 9 August 2016. ! ! 70 !