Bassam Ayachi “Godfather of Belgian Jihad” arrested in France
A 71-year-old Islamist cleric who is believed to
have helped funnel dozens of fighters to Syria and Afghanistan has been
arrested in Northern France.
Bassam Ayachi, a French-Syrian citizen who moved to
France in the 1960’s, had spent several years in his homeland before returning
to Europe. French police arrested him last week in the latest twist in a
long-running battle between the veteran figure and law enforcement.
He has been named ‘The Godfather of Belgian Jihad’
for his time founding, Belgium Islamic Centre in the Brussels suburb of
Molenbeek – a heartland of extremism in western Europe. It rose to
international prominence after it emerged that several of the jihadists
involved in the Paris attacks of 2015 had been radicalised there. He served as
the centre’s imam for two decades, during which time he is believed to have
facilitated the travel of dozens of radicalised Belgian recruits to Syria and
Afghanistan.
In 2013, he travelled to Syria alongside his son
Abdelrahman Ayachi, who was killed in 2013 fighting with the Islamist group,
Suquor Al Sham in Northern Syria’s Idlib province. In 2015, the older man, who
had joined the same group, lost an arm in an airstrike.
He had been mentioned in some 40 cases in Belgium,
but never charged or convicted. Following his arrest last week, French
prosecutors charged him with conspiracy in a terrorist and criminal
organisation for his time in Syria.
