AN ENDURING THREAT: EUROPE’S ISLAMIST TERROR NETWORKS THEN AND NOW 2.3 The ‘Frankfurt Cell’: Strasbourg Market Plot 756 MOHAMMED BENSAKHRIA aka Mohammed Ben Aissa Role: One of the leaders of the ‘Frankfurt cell’ which planned a bomb attack on Strasbourg Christmas 757 market. Bio: An Algerian national who has been described as “passing himself off as a businessman” in 758 759 Germany, Bensakhria is alleged to have been one of Osama bin Laden’s representatives in Europe. 760 Following the arrest of four of his co-conspirators in Frankfurt in December 2000, Bensakhria fled to 761 Spain, where he disguised himself as a “poor North African migrant worker”,’ and used the aliases 762 Mohammed ben Aissa and Meliani. He lived in a van in North African immigrant neighbourhood in Alicante, and was arrested by Spanish police in June 2001 on the basis of an arrest warrant issued by 763 French authorities. He was extradited to France and convicted of “criminal association with a terrorist enterprise” and sentenced to ten years in December 2004. Foreign training/combat: The Strasbourg market plotters were alleged to have learned bomb-making 764 techniques in Afghanistan, but is unclear which individuals attended training camps there. Movements: 765 Germany (Unclear); Spain (2000). Criminal history: Bensakhria is believed to have had a history of petty crime including theft and assault, 766 fraud and drug dealing while in Germany. Convicted of “criminal association with a terrorist enterprise” 767 in December 2004. Known to the authorities: Wanted by French authorities following his escape in December 2000, as well 768 as by Interpol and US law enforcement agencies. Networks and associates: -! The ‘Frankfurt Cell’: Slimane Khalfaoui Rabah Kadre, Yacine Aknouche, Lazhar Ben Mohammed Tlili, Abdelkader Tcharek, Meroine Berrahal, Laurent Mourad Djoumakh, Samir Korchi, Nicolas Belloni [Convicted alongside as members of the ‘Frankfurt cell’ in December 769 2004, Bensakhria was in direct contact with Khalfaoui and Aknouche]; Fouhad Sabour, Lamine ! ! 756 ‘Bin Laden associate arrested in Spain’, CNN, 22 June 2001, available at: http://edition.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/europe/06/22/spain.arrest/, last visited: 9 August 2016. 757 ‘Jail for Strasbourg bomb plotters’, BBC News, 16 December 2004, available at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/4102023.stm, last visited: 9 August 2016. 758 Tremlett, G., ‘Spanish police arrest Bin Laden suspect’, Guardian, 23 June 2001, available at: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/jun/23/gilestremlett, last visited: 9 August 2016. 759 ‘Threats and responses: Militants; Spain arrests 16 suspected of ties to al-Qaeda’, The New York Times, 25 January 2003. 760 ‘Bin Laden associate arrested in Spain’, CNN, 22 June 2001; and ‘Algerian linked to bin Laden to be jailed pending extradition to France’ Associated Press International, 23 June 2001. 761 Tremlett, G., ‘Spanish police arrest Bin Laden suspect’, Guardian, 23 June 2001. 762 ‘Bin Laden associate arrested in Spain’, CNN, 22 June 2001. 763 ‘Algerian linked to bin Laden to be jailed pending extradition to France’, Associated Press International, 23 June 2001. 764 ‘Jail for Strasbourg bomb plotters’, BBC News, 16 December 2004. 765 Tremlett, G., ‘Spanish police arrest Bin Laden suspect’, Guardian, 23 June 2001. 766 Finn, P., ‘Five Linked to Al Qaeda Face Trial in Germany’, The Washington Post, 15 April 2002, available at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2002/04/15/five-linked-to-al-qaeda-face-trial-in-germany/4b7c7dee-6dfd-4ed3-abba-bf474b58db74/, last visited: 9 August 2016. 767 ‘Jail for Strasbourg bomb plotters’, BBC News, 16 December 2004. 768 ‘Algerian linked to bin Laden to be jailed pending extradition to France’, Associated Press International, 23 June 2001. 769 ‘French court convicts group in Strasbourg Christmas market bomb’, Agence France Presse, 16 December 2004 and ‘Brothers-in-law, one considered key player, investigated in French Strasbourg bomb plot’, Associated Press International, 29 November 2002. ! ! 61 !