AN ENDURING THREAT: EUROPE’S ISLAMIST TERROR NETWORKS THEN AND NOW 953 in 2012, where he is alleged to have joined Ansar al-Sharia Tunisia, proscribed as a terrorist organisation 954 955 in the UK in May 2014, in a non-public role related to its military capacities. Foreign training/combat : Travelled to Afghanistan in 2000. Movements : Belgium (Unclear); Afghanistan (2000); Tunisia (2012). Criminal history: Convicted in 1995 over GIA arms trafficking. Convicted of “recruiting militants and trafficking false passports” in September 2003, and of “recruiting militants and trafficking false passports” in connection with the assassination of Ahmad Shah Massoud. Known to the authorities: Known following his GIA-related conviction, Maaroufi was also wanted in 956 connection with the plot to bomb the US embassy in Rome. Networks and associates : -! NATO Airbase Plot network: Nizar Trabelsi [Convicted alongside Trabelsi in September 957 958 2003]; Mohammed Amor Sliti [Convicted alongside Sliti in September 2003]. Other: -! Dahmane Abd el-Sattar [Maaroufi is believed to have recruited Abd el-Sattar, a Tunisian 959 living in Belgium, who was one of Massoud’s killers]; Essid Sami Ben Khemais [The leader of 960 an al-Qaeda-linked cell in Milan cell, Khemais was in telephone contact with Maaroufi and 961 discussed the arrest of the Strasbourg cell]; ‘E’ [Maaroufi claimed he had met with ‘E’ on a 962 963 number of occasions]; Sayf Allah Bin Hassine [Founded the TCG alongside Maaroufi]. 2.6 NATO Airbase Plot Network: Accomplices HISHAM BIN ALI BIN AMOR aka Ahmad Muhammed Jumr al-Masaudi: Cousin of Mohammed Amor Sliti. He moved in with Mohammed in Belgium in September 1998 after escaping from an Italian prion 11 months into a 44 month sentence for drug offences and worked as a mechanic. He followed Mohammed to Afghanistan in May 2000 and was recruited into the TCG, receiving weapons training and likely taking part in “hostilities against US and Coalition forces in Afghanistan”. He was captured in Pakistan in December 2001 and transferred to Guantanamo Bay. Convicted in absentia in relation to the NATO airbase plot network trial, he was held in Guantanamo Bay and transferred to Slovakia in 964 November 2014. ! ! 953 Zelin, A., ‘Tarek Maaroufi: Tunisia's Most Notorious Jihadist, Returns Home’, Tunisialive, 1 April 2012. 954‘PROSCRIBED TERRORIST ORGANISATIONS’, The Home Office, 18 March 2016, available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/509003/20160318proscription.pdf, last visited: 9 August 2016. 955 Gartenstein-Ross, D., ‘Ansar al-Sharia Tunisia’s Long Game: Dawa, Hisba, and Jihad’, May 2013, available at: http://www.icct.nl/download/file/Gartenstein-Ross- Ansar-al-Sharia-Tunisia's-Long-Game-May-2013.pdf, last visited: 9 August 2016. 956 ‘Men jailed over Al-Qaeda anti-NATO plot’, ABC News, 30 September 2003, available at: ‘Men jailed over Al Qaeda anti-NATO plot’, ABC News, 30 September 2003; and Zelin, A., ‘Tarek Maaroufi: Tunisia's Most Notorious Jihadist, Returns Home’, Tunisialive, 1 April 2012. 957 ‘Men jailed over Al Qaeda anti-NATO plot’, ABC News, 30 September 2003. 958 ibid. 959 Escobar, P., ‘The Roving Eye: Part 4: Tracking al-Qaeda in Europe’, Asia Times Online, 13 July 2002. 960 ‘Italy jails four terror suspects’, BBC News, 22 February 2002, available at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/1835577.stm, last visited: 9 August 2016. 961 ‘A Nation Challenged: Milan; Italian Tapes Portray Young Arabs Operating on the Edges of Islamic Terror’, The New York Times, 29 October 2001. 962 ‘Between: The Secretary of State for the home department –and- E’, England and Wales High Court (Administrative Court) Decisions, 16 February 2007. 963 Zelin, A., ‘The Tunisian-Libyan Jihadi Connection’, The Washington Institute, 6 July 2015, available at: http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy- analysis/view/the-tunisian-libyan-jihadi-connection, last visited: 9 August 2016. 964 ‘JTF-GTMO Detainee Assessment’, United States Department of Defense, 1 October 2008; and ‘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. ! ! 76 !