11

Re: Abdelkader Belliraj

Fundamentalist Group Says It Killed Muslim Cleric in Belgium

An obscure Muslim fundamentalist group, the Soldiers of Justice, claimed responsibility in Beirut on Friday for the slayings of a Muslim religious leader and his assistant earlier this week.

The Lebanese-based group said Muslim leader Abdullah Ahdal, 36, and assistant Salim Behir, 40, were killed because they worked for Israeli intelligence. However, Belgian police continued to focus their investigations on the theory that the two men were shot dead because of Ahdal's moderate stance on the controversy surrounding author Salman Rushdie and his book, "The Satanic Verses."

Marina Coppieters 't Wallant, magistrate in charge of the investigation, appealed for information, calling in particular on anyone who had spoken to the victims Wednesday to contact police.

The Brussels newspaper De Morgen on Friday published a copy of an open letter, widely distributed in the large Arab community only days before the killings, criticizing Ahdal for his statements on the Rushdie book and his refusal to authorize publication of another book attacking the British-based author and his works.

The open letter, addressed in French to "brothers and sisters in Islam," takes the side of another Brussels Muslim leader and religious instructor, the Imam Mohammed Saghir, in his challenge against Ahdal. As director of the World Islamic League Mosque and Cultural Center, Ahdal was Saghir's supervisor in the center's program of religious education.

"The director (Ahdal) doesn't represent anyone. He rides alone," the unsigned letter stated. Specifically, the letter accused Ahdal of doing nothing to prevent publication of "The Satanic Verses" in Belgium and refusing to urge the banning of the book in newspaper and television interviews on the subject. "At the same time," the letter continued, "he blocked our Muslim brother Imam Mohammed Saghir from publishing a book he just wrote clarifying the Rushdie affair for Muslims and non-Muslims alike."

The letter claimed Ahdal told Saghir that if he published the book, he would be forced to leave the religious center. Police said Saghir and Ahdal met to discuss their disagreements in the same offices of the large mosque where the religious leader was killed only hours later. But a police spokesman said Saghir is not a suspect in the killings.

However, the tone of the letter and the obvious hostility illustrates an emotional division in the Muslim community over the Rushdie matter and Ahdal's leadership.

Since it receives substantial financial aid from Saudi Arabia, the World Islamic Center has often been the object of jealousies in the greater Muslim community. In fact, Ahdal, a Saudi, came to the mosque and religious center, which represents the Sunni Muslim community in Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg, seven years ago after a similarly bitter conflict forced the resignation of his predecessor, a Tunisian, Mohammed Aluini.

Whether these disputes were deep enough to result in professional-style assassination is another matter. However, investigators said Friday that they have no evidence linking the Soldiers of Justice group with the slayings.

In a typewritten statement issued in Beirut, the group claimed "responsibility for carrying out God's verdict on traitors Abdullah Ahdal and Salim Behir." The statement claimed Ahdal and Behir had used the Brussels Islamic Center as a front for anti-Islamic activities and were working on behalf of Israeli intelligence.

The Soldiers of Justice organization first surfaced in December when it claimed responsibility for the kidnaping of a Belgian doctor, Jan Cools, 32, in southern Lebanon on May 21 last year. Since then it has issued press releases in Beirut taking credit for a December attack on a Jewish social club in Copenhagen and the shooting death of a Saudi Arabian diplomat in Bangkok, Thailand, also in December.

Bron: Los Angeles Times | 1 April 1989

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12

Re: Abdelkader Belliraj

Voor de volledigheid vind je hieronder het Engelstalig Wikipedia-artikel over Belliraj, met een lijst met moorden die hij en zijn bende in België hebben gepleegd.

Abdelkader Belliraj (born 1957, Nador) is a Moroccan-Belgian citizen who was found guilty in 2009 of arms smuggling and planning terrorist attacks in Morocco.

Petty criminal in the 1980s

In the 1980s, he was convicted in Belgium of assault and battery (1986), followed by convictions for breach of trust, arms trafficking, and trafficking in false passports with accomplices inside the Moroccan consulates of Belgium (1987), as well as embezzlement (1989).

Hold-up in 2000

A Belgian-Moroccan gang organized the successful hold-up of a Brinks agency at Kehlen, Luxembourg on April 17, 2000. They stole 17,000,000 Euros. Abdellatif Bekhti was arrested and sentenced to 20 years imprisonment in Luxembourg in January 2003. He succeeded in escaping two months later with the help of his gang. He then took refuge in his native Morocco. He allegedly laundered 2,500,000 Euros in Morocco, where he was re-arrested in 2008, along with the so-called "Belliraj network".

On October 31, 2008, the son of Abdelkader Belliraj, Omar Belliraj, as well as Abdellatif Bekhti's brother, Abderahim Bekhti, appeared before the Correctional Court of Brussels for laundering money from the Brink's hold up (on charges that had been slightly reduced to robbing €15,000,000). Abderahim Bekhti then said, "Yes, my brother committed the hold up in Luxembourg and he took away more than 600 million Belgian francs. He was condemned to 20 years and he escaped. Then, he was taken in by Belliraj who told him he would invest the money. He invested in hotels and my brother never again saw his money. Thence, there is no whitewashing. I bought a Porsche, that's all." The judicial correspondent of La Dernière Heure mentions that both Abderahim Bekhti and Omar Belliraj laundered the money by buying four Porsches, one Mercedes, a Honda motorcycle and a jet ski, with €500 banknotes only.

Political and alleged terrorist career

Marxist-Leninist sympathiser in the 1970s

During his youth in the 1970s, Belliraj probably was a sympathiser of Ila Al Amam, a Moroccan Marxist-Leninist clandestine (but nonviolent) organization (now the Annahj Addimocrati party), and had contact with Mustapha Moatassim, who 20 years later became one of the founders of the Al Badil Al Hadari party, a small legalist Islamist party with exceptionally good relations with the legalist Far Left Parti Socialiste Unifié and with Moroccan human rights organizations. Moatassim and another leader of this party were arrested alongside Belliraj in February 2008 and the party was officially disbanded by the Moroccan government.

Panarabist activist and Belgian trade-unionist in the 1980s

In the 1980s, Belliraj was an activist of the Arab section of the Belgian Christian trade-union, led by Panarabist Moroccan Lekbir Nouri. However, there are only Abdelkader Belliraj’s own words to substantiate the allegation of his so-called union activism. The Christian trade union stated that Belliraj was never an employee of its organization or has never been a member in any way (affiliation being a condition for recognition as a union activist). Nouri and his companions travelled a lot in the Middle East, notably in Libya and Iraq, both for political reasons and to get money from the oil-rich Arab "progressive" regimes. A delegation of this Arab section, including Belliraj, met in Iran with Ayatollah Khomeini in 1981. There were allegations of embezzlement in 1989 against both Nouri and Belliraj, who allegedly disposed of large amounts of Libyan and Iraqi funds for their personal use.

Informant of the Belgian State Security Service since the 1990s

At some point in the 1990s, Belliraj became an informant for the main Belgian intelligence agency, the Sûreté de l'État, infiltrating criminal organizations, and even having dinner with Osama bin Laden less than two weeks before the September 11 attacks. Belliraj turned over large amounts of information regarding Al Qaeda to Belgian authorities. It has also been alleged that he could have been as well an informant for the CIA and/or for a Moroccan secret service.

Alleged murders in 1988–1989

Belliraj allegedly committed a series of murders in 1986–1989, being paid $300 for three of them by Abu Nidal. Some of them were claimed in Beirut by the Soldiers of the Right. In the 1990s, Belliraj allegedly became involved with international criminal and terrorist networks, working as a "money man.". However, he recanted all these "confessions" later, through his attorney. He also stated in an open letter, written in August 2008 and published by the Belgian newspaper Le Soir, that they had been extorted under torture, a practice common in the Moroccan police system.

Belliraj's purported confessions included the murders of:

  • July 28, 1988: Raoul Schouppe, 65, a grocer in Brussels and former warrant officer in the Belgian Air Force, who was locally known to be Jewish

  • August 16, 1988: Marcel Bille, 53, allegedly because Bille was a client to Moroccan male prostitutes; he was killed with the same gun as Schouppe

  • March 29, 1989: Abdullah al-Ahdal El Hasi, 36, imam and manager of the Islamic and cultural center of Brussels (then placed in charge by the Belgian authorities of Islam in Belgium, with an emphasis on the selection of Islamic teachers paid by the Belgian authorities; this so-called "Grand Mosque" was controlled by the Saudi-based Muslim World League)

  • March 29, 1989: Salem Bahri, 48, El Hasi's assistant, allegedly for objecting to Ayatollah Khomeini's fatwa against Salman Rushdie

  • June 20, 1989: Samir Gahez Rasoul, 24, a chauffeur for the Saudi Arabian ambassador to Belgium; he allegedly was a collateral victim of a shot aimed at a Saudi diplomat

  • October 3, 1989: Joseph Wybran, 49, a Belgian immunologist and leader in the local Jewish community.

Arms trafficker in the 2000s

Belliraj and 37 others were arrested in Morocco in January and February 2008; their arrests were made public on 18 February 2008. They were accused of stockpiling weapons for terrorist attacks. Belliraj denied the charges, claiming that the weapons were cached in the 1990s, intended to support (or to be sold to) Islamic radicals in Algeria. Claims have been made that these weapons could have been part of an attempt by the Belgian secret service to infiltrate Belliraj inside an Algerian terrorist organization; they were discovered at Beni Chiker, near Nador in the Rif region, an area well known for drug and weapon trafficking.

Trial

Belliraj's trial was docketed for October 16, 2008, at the Salé Criminal Appeal Court in charge of terrorism affairs, under the judge Abdelkader Chentouf. It was continued until November 14, 2008, at the request of the 40-odd lawyers representing 33 indicted persons. It was then again continued to December 26, 2008.

On October 22, 2008, Belgian Justice Minister Jo Vandeurzen was asked in the House of Representatives by MP Georges Dallemagne (of the CDH center-left party, a member of the governing coalition) if Belliraj could be tried in Belgium for the crimes he allegedly committed there between 1986 and 1989. The Minister answered that it was premature to raise the question of such a trial and that Morocco would never, in any case, extradite Belliraj.

On June 27, 2009, Belliraj was convicted of "plotting terror attacks in Morocco, holdups in Europe, large-scale money laundering projects and arms trafficking." He was sentenced to life in prison. His lawyer has said that he plans to appeal the ruling. The trial has been described as Morocco's highest profile terrorism case, and has divided political parties, with some supporting Belliraj's defence. Some human rights groups have criticised the verdict, saying that the trial was politically motivated and the convictions are suspect.

2008 Report from the Belgian Intelligence Service (Sûreté de l'État)

The 2008 (first ever) public report of the Belgian Sûreté de l'État, published on line in January 2010, includes a section over the "Belliraj Affair", fairly critical towards the Moroccan version: "Only seven of the fourteen international arrest warrants issued by the Moroccan authorities could undergo examination, because the other persons enjoyed the Belgian citizenship at the time of the facts, thus making their extradition impossible. Among those detained, no one will finally be extradited, the elements given by Morocco have not been considered pertinent". The conclusion of this section is that "The elements given by Morocco have not indiscutably demonstrated the existence of a network nor its implication in six murders in Belgium".

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Re: Abdelkader Belliraj

Ben wrote:

Belliraj allegedly committed a series of murders in 1986–1989, being paid $300 for three of them by Abu Nidal. Some of them were claimed in Beirut by the Soldiers of the Right.

Dezelfde Abu Nidal van de aanslag in Brussel op 18 September 1982 en die in Rome?

De waarheid schaadt nooit een zaak die rechtvaardig is.

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Re: Abdelkader Belliraj

Belliraj: drie keer zelfde wapen

Ten minste drie van de zes moorden die nu aan de Belgische terreurverdachte Abdelkader Belliraj (50) worden toegeschreven, werden gepleegd met hetzelfde wapen. Dat is al in 1989 gebleken uit gerechtelijk onderzoek, zo meldt Het Laatste Nieuws maandag.

Belgische speurders vermoedden eind jaren '80 al dat er een verband was tussen de aanslag op de Saudische imam Abdullah Al-Ahdal van de Brusselse moskee, zijn Tunesische bibliothecaris Salem El-Behir en de chauffeur van de Saudische ambassade, Jah al-Rasul. Ze werden in 1989 neergelegd met een 7.65 mm-pistool, een handvuurwapen dat wel vaker gebruikt wordt door huurdoders.

Het gerecht vond in 1989 ook een motief voor de aanslag. De slachtoffers waren mogelijk lastige getuigen van een omvangrijke fraude die gepleegd werd door personeel van de Saudische ambassade in Brussel. Belliraj werd ondervraagd, maar er kon hem niets ten laste worden gelegd. Alles wijst er intussen op dat Belliraj jarenlang een dubbelspion was, schrijft Het Laatste Nieuws.

Bron: De Morgen | 3 maart 2008

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15

Re: Abdelkader Belliraj

Uit La Dernière Heure, over Belliraj ... onder faits divers nota bene.

Condamné pour terrorisme à perpétuité au Maroc, le Belgo-Marocain est suspecté de six assassinats en Belgique. Selon son ex-avocat au Maroc Mohamed Ziane, Abdelkhader Belliraj, le Belgo-Marocain suspecté de six assassinats en Belgique, "va malheureusement terminer sa vie en prison".

Bâtonnier des ordres des avocats du Maroc, Me Ziane fut en 2008 le premier avocat de Belliraj que le tribunal antiterroriste de Salé condamna en 2009 à la prison à perpétuité pour avoir dirigé un réseau terroriste islamiste.

Belliraj a maintenant 60 ans. Il a toujours pour avocat belge Me Vincent Lurquin, du barreau de Bruxelles.

Contacté hier, l’avocat en contact régulier avec la famille Belliraj en Belgique réagit ainsi: "Je n’ai toujours pas pu rencontrer mon client détenu au Maroc, alors que la Chambre du conseil de Bruxelles a expressément demandé au parquet fédéral belge de tout mettre en œuvre auprès des autorités marocaines pour que cette rencontre puisse avoir lieu. "

Après la prison de Meknes (régime particulièrement dur), Belliraj, selon Me Lurquin, aurait été retransféré à Salé.

Ensuite, Me Lurquin précise qu’il demande le transfèrement par le Maroc de Belliraj vers la Belgique, au cas où la décision serait prise par la justice belge de juger le Belgo-Marocain pour les six assassinats dont il est suspecté à Bruxelles entre 1986 et 1989, dont celui du grand médecin des cliniques Érasme, le professeur Joseph Wybran.

"La question du transfèrement de Salah Abdeslam par la France pour son procès dans trois semaines en Belgique a pu être réglée. Pourquoi celui de M. Belliraj poserait problème?" s’interroge en substance Me Lurquin.

Quant aux six assassinats, la Chambre des mises en accusation de Bruxelles doit fixer la date d’une prochaine audience. Me Lurquin l’espère "début 2018".

Assez paradoxalement, les parties civiles - dont l’épouse du Dr Wybran tué le 3 octobre 1989 - et la défense de Belliraj, se rejoignent en faveur d’un procès, s’opposant ainsi au parquet fédéral favorable à la solution d’un non-lieu.

Mardi passé, Me Ziane a été écarté de la défense d’un leader marocain. L’avocat a réagi ainsi: "La même chose était survenue avec M. Belliraj. Résultats: les amis de M. Belliraj [ont obtenu une grâce royale fin 2015 et] sont aujourd’hui libres. Tandis que Belliraj va malheureusement terminer sa vie en prison."

Invité à préciser sa pensée, Me Ziane a ajouté: "Le procès Belliraj s’est déroulé sous le règne de Mohammed VI. Je n’ai rien à dire là-dessus, je vous laisse en déduire ce que vous voulez", a sombrement conclu l’énigmatique Me Ziane, bâtonnier de Rabat et ancien ministre des Droits de l’homme au Maroc.

Bron: La Dernière Heure | Gilbert Dupont | 2 december 2017

Verdacht van 6 moorden in België tussen '86 en '89 met die Islamistische terreurgroep. Na de Bende en CCC, Islamterreur als instrument? Ben heeft daar een mooi chronologisch overzichtje van gemaakt. En toch is het Federaal Parket voorstander van een non-lieu, seponering dus, waarschijnlijk wegens verjaring? Geen verjaring want de Kamer van Inbeschuldigingstelling van Brussel wil hier wel mee doorgaan... Dat Parket ligt schijnbaar ook dwars met de uitlevering uit de Marokkaanse gevangenis waar hij levenslang vastzit.

Men stelt zich dan de vraag of er ook iemand schrik zou hebben voor bepaalde onthullingen als Belliraj een forum krijgt tijdens een eventueel proces. Enkel de vrouw van de vermoorde Wybran én de verdediging van Belliraj willen wèl een proces... Natuurlijk is er een kans dat Belliraj dan in een Belgische gevangenis terechtkomt na een proces hier, wat voordelig is voor hem. Beter dan een non-lieu, maar toch, kan er een ander motief spelen?

Ik post dit omdat in dit topic Ben en Sherlock ergens spreken over Belliraj die infiltrant zou zijn geweest voor de Staatsveiligheid. Dat non-lieu verhaal is misschien ook in die context meer begrijpelijk? Waarom heeft men zo lang getalmd om hem hier te berechten? Was hij zo ongrijpbaar? Of wil men hem hier niet...

Re: Abdelkader Belliraj

Uit Het Nieuwsblad van morgen: smile

“Bekende terrorist Belliraj was de leider van Bende van Nijvel”

“De Bende van Nijvel was eigenlijk een Belgische terreurcel die afhing van de in de jaren tachtig beruchte internationale terreurorganisatie Abu Nidal. De agent van Abu Nidal in België was Abdelkader Belliraj (61), de bekende terrorist die in Marokko veroordeeld werd tot levenslange gevangenisstraf”. Dat is kort gezegd de Bende-these die een hoge federale ambtenaar, bevoegd voor terrorisme, heeft overgemaakt aan het federaal parket. De piste wordt ook in regeringskringen het onderzoeken waard geacht. De reus van de Bende die momenteel in een Marokkaanse cel zit, zou ook een veroordeelde terrorist zijn. Hij heet Ali Aarras (57).

Een spectaculaire nieuwe piste, zo bestempelde advocaat Peter Callebaut die verschillende nabestaanden van Bendeslachtoffers verdedigt, gisteren het dossier dat de hoge ambtenaar en expert terrorisme, indiende. Vandaag vernam deze redactie meer over dit nieuwe bendedossier. “De Bende van Nijvel werd geleid door terrorist Abdelkader Belliraj”, zo staat er genoteerd.

Belliraj werkte via een tussenpersoon voor Abu Nidal. Die Palestijnse terreurorganisatie uit de jaren tachtig pleegde meer dan 90 aanslagen en maakte meer dan 300 slachtoffers. Belliraj, elektricien van opleiding en ooit nog een agent van de Belgische Staatsveiligheid, woonde in zijn jeugd in Braine-le-comte en in Clabecq, beide plekken liggen vlakbij het bos van Houssière, de vaste afspraakplek van de Bende, zo meldt de ambtenaar.

Lees hier het hele artikel » Nieuws

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Re: Abdelkader Belliraj

In die tijd zaten er verschillende andere agenten van Abu Nidal vast in ons land. Eén van hen was veroordeeld voor een aanslag op joodse kinderen in Antwerpen waarbij één kind omkwam in 1979. Abu Nidal wou die kerel vrij krijgen en dat is één van de redenen waarom de bende van Belliraj met de aanslagen begon die later bekend zouden te komen staan als de “Bende van Nijvel”, zo vermoedt de hoge ambtenaar die de zaak Belliraj altijd van heel dichtbij gevolgd heeft.

Juwelier, restaurantuitbater en willekeurige mensen in den Delhaize afknallen om vervolgens gekoppeld aan deze daden geen enkele eis te uiten, lijkt mij nu niet meteen de meest effectieve manier om 1 persoon uit de gevangenis te krijgen.

Maar goed, onder de categorie besnorde mensen met voorhoofdskaalheid en opmerkelijke levenswandel in de jaren '80 hadden we nog geen Spaanstalige Arabieren... Nu hebben we alles gehad, vermoed ik?

Re: Abdelkader Belliraj

Ik begrijp heel goed dat de speurders deze piste tijdverlies vinden. Te belachelijk voor woorden.

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Re: Abdelkader Belliraj

Ik vind dit geen belachelijk spoor, gezien de auteur van de nota. Dat is niet eender wie, hé! Anderzijds kun je de andere sporen niet zomaar uitsluiten.

Re: Abdelkader Belliraj

bkv wrote:

Maar goed, onder de categorie besnorde mensen met voorhoofdskaalheid en opmerkelijke levenswandel in de jaren '80 hadden we nog geen Spaanstalige Arabieren... Nu hebben we alles gehad, vermoed ik?

We kunnen er voor de zekerheid nog het spaghettimonster en de kapper uit Gert en Samson aan toevoegen (sorry Albertoooo). Dan zijn we echt zeker. smile Erg dat slachtoffers toch met zulk fake news een bepaalde valse hoop wordt gegeven. Dat is eigenlijk het ergste, de rest is usual business. Jammer dat het federaal parket in zulke dingen tijd en geld moet steken. Morgen is het weer overgewaaid.