AN ENDURING THREAT: EUROPE’S ISLAMIST TERROR NETWORKS THEN AND NOW SID AHMED GHLAM: A 24-year-old Algerian computer science student, Ghlam plotted to attack churches in the Villejuif suburb of Paris. The plot failed when he accidentally shot himself and called an ambulance. A cache of weapons was discovered in his car. Ghlam is also believed to have been involved in the murder of Aurelie Chatelain, found dead in Villejuif the day Ghlam was arrested. According to 563 French officials, Ghlam was already known to the security services over his desire to travel to Syria, and 564 Abdelhamid Abaaoud is believed to have been involved in the plot. NOUREDDINE ABRAIMI: The 29-year-old brother of Lazez Abraimi, Noureddine travelled from his home in Molenbeek to Syria at the end of 2014, leaving behind his wife and children. Noureddine allegedly provided logistical support to Abdelhamid Abaaoud as part of the foiled plot against Belgian 565 police in Verviers, January 2015 and is said to have been recruited by Abaaoud. His home was raided in January 2015566 and he will be tried in absentia in connection to the Verviers plot.567 His brother’s lawyers 568 claim Noureddine is currently in Syria. NICHOLAS MOREAU: Charged with involvement in a “conspiracy related to terrorist enterprise”, 569 Moreau claimed Abdelhamid Abaaoud was responsible for vetting potential European recruits. Before Moreau converted to Islam in prison, he had been a petty criminal. He left Nantes to fight in Syria in 2014 and was arrested on his return in 2015. After his arrest, he revealed crucial information about the inner workings of IS’s external operations, including that selected fighters were given £40,000 to fund 570 attacks. 571 572 REDA HAME: A 29-year-old French computer technician, Hame was arrested in August 2015 and suspected of plotting a hostage-taking at a concert hall in Paris. He revealed that he had received weapons training from Abaaoud in Raqqa in June. Hame claimed IS was using encrypted communication technology to connect with European operatives and that Abdelhamid Abaaoud had given him the tools 573 to do so. Abaaoud is believed to have been his handler and to have trained him and an associate to hit 574 targets in France and Spain.Hame was arrested after his accomplice was arrested in Spain. 575 ABID ABERKAN: The nephew of Fatima Aberkan, and accomplice to Salah Abdeslam and Soufiane 576 577 578 Ayari , acting as their “landlord”. He has been described as “a distant cousin” of Abdeslam’s, and 579 Abdeslam was eventually arrested at Aberkan’s mother’s address. ! ! 563 ‘France 'foils five terror attacks' - PM Valls’, BBC News, 23 April 2015. 564 ‘Paris attacks: Who was Abdelhamid Abaaoud?’, BBC News, 19 November 2015. 565 Dalton, M., ‘Investigators Home In on Scope of Terror Network Behind Brussels, Paris Attacks’, The Wall Street Journal, 4 April 2016. 566 ibid. 567 Cruickshank, P. and Lister, T, ‘Immense challenges remain despite arrests of terror suspects’, CNN, 8 April 2016, available at: http://edition.cnn.com/2016/04/08/europe/belgium-arrests-significance/, last visited: 9 August 2016. 568 ‘Factbox: The hunt for the Paris attackers’, Reuters, 24 December 2015. 569 ‘At least 8 suspects are at large with links to attacks in Brussels, Paris’, CNN, 28 March 2016. 570 ‘IS in Europe: The race to the death’, BBC News, 23 March 2016. 571 Callimachi, R., ‘How ISIS Built the Machinery of Terror Under Europe’s Gaze’, The New York Times, 29 March 2016. 572 ibid. 573 ‘At least 8 suspects are at large with links to attacks in Brussels, Paris’, CNN, 28 March 2016. 574 Gartenstein-Ross, D. and Nathaniel Barr, ‘Recent Attacks Illuminate Islamic State’s Europe Attack Network’, The Jamestown Foundation, 27 April 2016. 575 ibid. 576 ‘Brussels attacks: Have blunders hampered Belgian investigation?’, BBC News, 15 April 2016. 577 ‘Abid Aberkan reste en détention préventive’, 7 Sur 7, 25 March 2016. 578 ‘Captured Paris terror suspect Salah Abdeslam says he planned more attacks’, The Wall Street Journal, 21 March 2016, available at: http://www.wsj.com/articles/arrested-paris-terror-suspect-salah-abdeslam-says-he-planned-more-attacks-1458499173, last visited: 9 August 2016. 579 ‘Brussels attacks: Have blunders hampered Belgian investigation?’, BBC News, 15 April 2016. ! ! 49 !