Belgium, recruitment and logistics base for the bin Laden network?
(B2 archives *) In Belgium, the investigation continues actively. The country indeed seems to have housed a recruitment and logistics unit for the Bin Laden network. Yesterday again, several hearings were conducted in the office of the Brussels judge Christian De Valkeneer. Six people are currently under arrest warrant. " The investigation continues "we specify on the judicial side, where we deny that" Belgium is a nerve center. Justice is perhaps more active there than in other countries... ” confides a source close to the investigation.
Two files are mainly open
One concerns the passports stolen in 1999 from the Belgian consulates in The Hague and Strasbourg, two of which were used by Commander Massoud's assassins. At the end of November and during December, a series of searches had been carried out in several places in the country (in the Brussels region, in Mons and in Louvain), at the end of which a dozen people had been arrested. Mainly in fundamentalist Tunisian circles. At the beginning of January, the Dutch authorities handed over to Belgium a man arrested in Eindhoven (Netherlands).
A second file was opened at the Brussels public prosecutor's office on the Takfir Wal Hijra movement, a movement of Egyptian origin linked to the Arab Mujahideen of Afghanistan, a group suspected of having planned attacks in Europe against American interests.
New efforts coming soon
« In the coming weeks, we will deploy new forces and other investigative efforts to know the Islamists active in our territory. “, announced in December the director of judicial services, Glenn Audenaert. NB: The two people arrested in France were arrested on a letter rogatory issued by the Brussels investigating judge.
Ahmed Zaoui's network dismantled
The research carried out in Belgium is the result of research efforts carried out since the beginning of the 90s in collaboration with the State Security. During this decade, they had already enabled the dismantling of the network of Ahmed Zaoui and Farid Melouk and the exchange of information during the campaign of Islamist attacks during the summer of 1995 in France.
It was at this time that Tarek Maaroufi (1) was given a three-year suspended prison sentence, then placed under house arrest, as part of a trial of members of a network linked to the Algerian GIA during which Ahmed Zaoui, a former parliamentarian from the FIS (Islamic Salvation Front), one of the presumed leaders of the GIA in Europe, also appeared.
A network of Belgian fighters for Al Qaeda
The French-speaking daily, La Libre Belgique, reveals today that a "few dozen" Belgian nationals have left to fight in Afghanistan in the ranks of Al Qaeda. One of them would be Abd al Sattar, one of Massoud's killers. According to our Belgian colleague, “ he was part of a very active Tunisian radical Islamic group in Brussels."
(Nicolas Gros-Verheyde)
(*) Notes written for France-Soir
(1) Tarek Maaroufi is described by the Belgian press as an "influential figure within his community where he is readily considered a philosopher"
