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Europe
Belgian police arrest 13 in anti-terror raids
2022-02-09
[IsraelTimes] More than 100 Belgian police have raided multiple addresses around the port city of Antwerp, detaining 13 people suspected of links to a jihadist group.

The operation was launched under the authority of anti-terror magistrates as part of a broader investigation, federal prosecutors said in a statement.

"An Antwerp group within the Salafist jihadist milieu has come under scrutiny and the aim of this operation was to further map out the group’s activities," it says.

"Thirteen people were deprived of their liberty and will appear in the course of the day before the investigating judge, who will decide on a possible arrest."

The Belgian cities of Brussels and Antwerp have been singled out in the past as alleged rear bases for international jihadist extremism.

Antwerp was the base of the jihad group Sharia4Belgium
...the Antwerp-based Salafist organization that had campaigned to introduce Sharia law to Belgium before single-handedly making Belgium the highest per capita supplier of jihadis to Syria in Europe. There was a big trial in Antwerp in 2015, but most of those convicted were in absentia. Its spokesman, Fouad Belkacem, was sentenced to 12 years in prison...
, which was founded in 2010, and several of its members went on to fight for hardline groups in Syria.
Related:
Antwerp: 2022-02-03 ISPR says attacks repulsed in Balochistan's Noshki and Panjgur; 4 terrorists killed
Antwerp: 2022-02-02 'Brit' gangster executed in cold blood on just another day in Antwerp: How tidal wave of drug money is rotting the cocaine capital of Europe from the inside out with customs, cops, city all corrupted or compromised
Antwerp: 2021-10-27 More than 1,000 Belgian police officers carry out dozens of raids and arrests in a sweeping operation targeting cocaine smugglers
Related:
Sharia4Belgium: 2017-07-23 European court: Islamist hate speech not protected under law
Sharia4Belgium: 2017-02-14 Europe migrant colonist briefs
Sharia4Belgium: 2016-06-18 New suspect charged over Brussels attacks
Link


Europe
European court: Islamist hate speech not protected under law
2017-07-23
[Jpost] The European Court of Human Rights has declared that the hate speech of one Belgian Moslem man is not protected under free speech laws.

Europe's top human rights
When they're defined by the state or an NGO they don't mean much...
 court ruled on Thursday (July 20) that online videos considered by a Belgian court to be Islamist hate speech were not protected under free speech provisions.

Fouad Belkacem is a Belgian national currently imprisoned for his activities as the head of Sharia4Belgium
...the Antwerp-based Salafist organization that had campaigned to introduce Sharia law to Belgium before single-handedly making Belgium the highest per capita supplier of jihadis to Syria in Europe. There was a big trial in Antwerp in 2015, but most of those convicted were in absentia. Its spokesman, Fouad Belkacem, was sentenced to 12 years in prison...
, an organization banned for recruiting imported muscle to participate in bad boy activities in the Middle East.

The European Court of Human Rights evaluated Belkacem's argument that his remarks in a series of videos on online platform YouTube fell within his freedoms of expression and religion and were not meant to incite violence.

In the videos, Belkacem had called on viewers to "overpower non-Moslems, teach them a lesson and fight them", content the Court called "markedly hateful" and "vehement". He had also called for the violent establishment of Sharia law.

The ECHR upheld the 2013 decision of Belgium's top court, which found that, far from simply expressing his views, Belkacem had incited others to discriminate on the basis of faith and to violence against non-Moslems.
Link


Europe
Europe migrant colonist briefs
2017-02-14
German police raid Chemnitz apartment block following possible terrorism alert

[DeutscheWelle] Police on Monday night stormed an apartment block in the German city of Chemnitz in what was potentially a response to a terrorism alert. At least one person was arrested.

Police confirmed the raid late on Monday after local media had reported that anti-terrorism forces had entered a housing building, accompanied by explosives sniffer dogs. The officers were reportedly wearing gas masks and carrying machine guns.

Authorities declined to provide further information, other than confirming the reports. They said they would announce further details on Tuesday.
However, the German "DPA" news agency, citing security officials, reported that a number of apartments were raided in the block.

According to security officials, police forces raided a number of Chemnitz apartments on Monday.

Belgian foreign fighter sentenced to 28 years for murder in Syria

[Ynet] A Belgian man was sentenced to 28 years in jail on Monday for killing a prisoner while fighting with jihadist groups in Syria, the first murder conviction of a returned fighter in Belgium.

Hakim Elouassaki, 24, returned to Belgium in 2013 after being wounded in the conflict, a few months after police had intercepted a phone call in which he bragged to his girlfried about executing a prisoner.
Update from Al Ahram at 6:00 a.m. ET:
The prisoner's family was supposed to pay 70,000 euros ($74,494) in ransom money but only came up with 30,000.

"A bullet through the head, bang, hahaha," Elouassaki, from Vilvoorde near Brussels, was heard telling his girlfriend by phone, according to court documents. Elouassaki had also sought to film his act, but the camera was badly placed.

Before going to Syria, Elouassaki was part of Sharia4Belgium, a group which recruited young Belgians to fight alongside groups such as Islamic State in the Middle East. The group's leader and several of its members were handed long prison sentences in 2015.

Orban: Hungary Will Welcome ‘European Refugees’ Fleeing Multicultural West
Trolling -- master level.
[Breitbart] Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban says his country will open its arms to west Europeans fleeing mass immigration and “the lords of globalist politics”. “We shall let in true refugees”, Mr Orban told a cheering audience: “Germans, Dutch, French and Italians, terrified

From Breitbart:
Hapless Police Arrest Violent Afghan Migrant After 24-Hour Crime Spree
13 Feb 2017
An Afghan migrant evaded Austrian police twice in a 24-hour crime spree, assaulting numerous people before following an 18-year-old female student home and masturbating on her family’s doorstep.

Expert Demands Better Vetting as 50 Million Islamic Radicals Accept Violence
13 Feb 2017
A Dutch academic and expert in migration has called for better vetting of new arrivals, claiming 50 million Muslims around the world are prepared to accept the use of violence in “defence” of their religion and ideology.

Undocumented Migrants To Be Made To Hand Over Mobile Phones
12 Feb 2017
Migrants who arrive in Germany without identification papers or a passport may soon have their mobile phones confiscated so that authorities can determine their country of origin. The number of migrants arriving in Germany with no form of identification has been

Majority of Germans Support Afghan Deportations
12 Feb 2017
A new survey has shown that although there have been a number of protests against deporting failed asylum seekers to Afghanistan, the majority of the German public agree with the deportations. The study, commissioned by a German magazine and carried
Link


Europe
New suspect charged over Brussels attacks
2016-06-18
[IsraelTimes] 30-year-old Youssef E.A accused of involvement in March 22 attacks that killed 32 people at Brussels airport and metro station.

A Belgian man has been tossed in the slammer
Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit!
 and charged in connection with the Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
 suicide kabooms that killed 32 people in Brussels in March, prosecutors said late Friday.

The 30-year-old, named as Youssef E.A, is one of several charged over the March 22 attacks that struck Brussels airport and a city metro station. The man has been charged with "participation in the activities of a terrorist group, terrorist murders and attempts to terrorist murders, as a perpetrator, co-perpetrator of accomplice", Belgium’s federal prosecutor said.

It added in a statement that several suspects linked to the bombings took part in a reconstruction Friday at an apartment in the Brussels suburb of Etterbeek. The flat is believed to have been "used as a safehouse" by the attackers and as the point of departure for the attack at Maalbeek metro station, the statement said.

Osama Krayem, a Swede of Syrian origin who has been charged over both the Brussels bombings and November’s jihadist attacks in Gay Paree, took part in the reconstruction. He is suspected of buying the bags used for the Brussels suicide kabooms. Caught on CCTV minutes before the metro bombing alongside suicide kaboomer Khalid El-Bakraoui, he decided not to go ahead with detonating his own device, according to his lawyer Vincent Lurquin.

Brothers Smail and Ibrahim Farisi, 31 and 27 years old respectively, also assisted with the reconstruction. They are suspected of renting the flat to the attackers and cleaning it a day after the bombings.

A 31-year-old man arrested in June, identified by prosecutors as "Ali E.H.A" and named by media as Ali El Haddad Asufi, has also been linked to the apartment and took part in the simulation.

Bilal El Makhoukhi, a 27-year-old Brussels resident arrested in April, also took part, although his suspected role in the Belgium attacks is not clear. He was sentenced to five years in jail in 2014 after going on trial alongside several members of Sharia4Belgium>Sharia4Belgium,
...the Antwerp-based Salafist organization that had campaigned to introduce Sharia law to Belgium before single-handedly making Belgium the highest per capita supplier of jihadis to Syria in Europe. There was a big trial in Antwerp in 2015, but most of those convicted were in absentia...
a group that sent jihadists to Syria. He is reported to have been injured fighting in the war-torn country.
Link


Europe
Four Brussels suspects charged with terror offenses
2016-04-10
[AA.TR] Mohammed Abrini, one of the suspects charged over last month’s Brussels attacks, has admitted his involvement, officials said Saturday.

The Federal Prosecutor’s Office released a statement confirming that Abrini was the third man involved in the bombing of Zaventem Airport. He was pictured in CCTV footage walking alongside two bombers who later killed themselves in the attack and became known as "the man in the hat".

Abrini confessed to being at the scene of crime, the statement said, adding that he threw his explosive vest in a bin and sold his hat after the blasts.

He was among six men nabbed
... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not...
 on Friday over last month’s attacks. Four, including Abrini, have been charged with "participating in terrorist acts". They were identified by broadcaster VRT as Mohammed Abrini, Osama Krayem, Bilal El Mahkoukhi and Herve B.M.

The Federal Prosecutor’s Office identified all the suspects apart from Abrini by their first name and the initials of their surname.

Abrini had also been wanted in connection with the attacks in Gay Paree that killed 130 people in November. The airport attack and another at a metro station left 32 dead.

Krayem has been identified as the second man involved in the Maalbeek metro station bombing, the prosecutor’s office said. He was filmed talking to jacket wallah Khalid El Bakraoui at Petillon metro station just before the blast and was also present when the bags that contained the airport bombs were purchased at a shop in Brussels.

El Makhoukhi and Herve B.M., who were detained with Krayem, are suspected of having assisted Abrini and Krayem. Last year, El Mahkoukhi was convicted over his involvement in Sharia4Belgium>Sharia4Belgium,
...a Belgian Salafist organization that has been funneling fighters to Al Nusra and Al Qaeda in the Maghreb for years...
an organization that recruited fighters for Death Eater groups in Syria and Iraq. He was sentenced to five years in prison - three suspended - and was released under condition of electronic monitoring in March.

The other two men that were arrested have been released.

The suspects are believed by officials to be part of a ISIS-backed network that carried out both the Brussels and Gay Paree attacks.

Also Saturday, armed police searched an apartment in Brussels’ Etterbeek district that police believe may have been used as a safe house.
Ynet adds that Herve B.M. is Rwandan, and from The Times of Israel:
A sixth suspect believed to be involved in the Brussels attacks last month was tossed in the clink
Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up!
 on Saturday in the central district of Etterbeek.

The arrest took place after a police raid on a building that involved more than 50 officers, snipers and the bomb squad, according to NBC news. The building had been evacuated and roads to the apartment complex were closed off Saturday.

Belgium’s prosecutor’s office said Saturday that a sixth person had been arrested, but refused to give any further details ahead of an announcement due out later in the day.
Link


Europe
Suspects in Paris, Brussels attacks may be linked
2015-12-17
[IsraelTimes] Man believed to have chauffeured bandidos bandidos turbans in November attack in La Belle France befriended gunman in attack on Belgium Jewish museum

A Muslim man accused of helping stage the recent attacks in Gay Paree befriended the alleged Brussels Jewish museum killer while in prison.

Mohammed Amri, who French police believe acted as a chauffeur for some of the bandidos bandidos turbans who killed 130 people in Gay Paree last month, became friends with Mehdi Nemmouche in a Belgian prison, the Gay Paree Match weekly reported last week. The report was based on an investigation led by the Phlegmish-language Het Nieuwsblad newspaper.

Nemmouche is standing trial for the May 2014 attack at the Jewish Museum of Belgium, which killed four people.

Amri is said to have helped Salah Abdeslam, an Islamist thought to be one of the criminal masterminds of the November 13 attacks, flee the Gay Paree region for Belgium. Amri denies the charges.

Abdeslam is the subject of an ongoing international manhunt. According to Gay Paree Match, Belgian authorities learned that Abdeslam may have been hiding in an apartment in the heavily Muslim Brussels neighborhood of Mollenbeek on the night of November 15, but did not storm the locale until the morning of November 16, since Belgian law prohibits searches in homes between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. except in the case of fire or a serious crime in progress. By the time police raided the apartment, Abdeslam had already left.
I wonder if there's a Sharia4Belgium connection -- a few years ago they were sending lots of lads to join the jihad in Syria...
Link


Terror Networks
ISIS pays recruiters $10,000 per person: U.N.
2015-10-17
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
 of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is paying supporters up to $10,000 for each person that they recruit to wage jihad in Syria and Iraq, UN experts said Friday after a visit to Belgium, one of the main countries of origin for so-called imported muscle.

Elzbieta Karska, who chairs a UN group studying the issue, said ISIS is using social media and informal networks of friends and family, with many of them in Syria, to recruit new jihadists in Belgium.

The UN experts learned from Belgian contacts that 500 imported muscle in Iraq and Syria originated in Belgium, the highest per capita of any EU country, she added.

"We have heard... about situations where recruiters were paid from two, three thousand to 10,000 dollars depending on... who was recruited," Karska told a presser in Brussels, adding the findings were preliminary.

"If somebody was well educated like computer specialists or doctors, they were paid more," the Polish human rights
...not to be confused with individual rights, mind you...
 lawyer added.

Her colleague Patricia Arias, a Chilean lawyer, added "they are paid by Daesh [Islamic State]," the Arabic acronym for Islamic State.

The Belgian-based myrmidon group Sharia4Belgium enlisted the first wave of recruits for Syria in 2010, according to Karska's UN body, which was set up by the Geneva-based UN Commission on Human Rights.

With Sharia4Belgium now broken up and many of its members jugged
Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please!
, recruiting has changed.

In the last year, "the key method of recruitment is reportedly through informal networks of friends and family, and through social media," Karska said.

"A significant degree of recruitment currently occurs through friends and family in Syria, who are also paid on the basis of the number of persons they recruit and on whether the recruits subsequently marry," she said.

Karska and Arias said an increasing number of women or girls is leaving Belgium to marry jihadists or care for those who are ill or maimed, but some may actually fight.

They had no figures on how many women had left Belgium, but said the number of boys and men departing for jihad had declined from about 10 per month three years ago to about four or five per month today.

Their average age is 23 years old and declining, Karska said.

The working group led a fact-finding visit to Tunisia a few months ago and plans a third trip in March to Ukraine, where the Western-backed government in Kiev is fighting pro-Russian rebels in the east.
Link


Europe
Belgium Jails Syria Jihad Recruiters for Up to 20 Years
2015-07-30
[AnNahar] A court handed down jail terms of up to 20 years Wednesday after a trial of 32 people charged with running one of Belgium's largest jihadist recruitment networks sending fighters to Syria, reports said.

Many of the defendants were tried in absentia, among them Abdelhamid Abaaoud, who was sentenced to 20 years, the Belga news agency said.

Abaaoud, a Belgian of Moroccan origin, remains on the lam after slipping through a police dragnet in connection with a separate case. Investigators believe he was the brains behind an Islamist cell the authorities broke up in January, thwarting an alleged plot to mount attacks against the police.

Police shot and killed two suspected Lions of Islam during the raid in Verviers, eastern Belgium, shortly after Islamist attacks in Gay Paree left 17 people dead.

In February, Abaaoud, who was reported at one time to be in Greece, grabbed credit for the plot against coppers and said he had joined the Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
 group in Syria.

The court in Brussels sentenced the second main defendant Khalid Zerkani to 12 years in jail for encouraging people to go to Syria, Belga said. Zerkani, who appeared in court, had consistently denied the charges.

Among others sentenced, Belga news agency said two defendants, a mother and her son, received eight years each. The woman's other two sons -- one of whom is believed to have died in Syria while the other appeared in court -- were placed in durance vile
Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out!
 for 20 years given their previous criminal records, the court ruled.

The case attracted considerable attention amid fears that young Belgians are being enticed to the battlefields in Syria and Iraq to return home battle-hardened and dangerously radicalized. Up to 400 are believed to have gone down that route, making Belgium the largest source of foreign jihadist fighters relative to its population.

In February, a court in the northern city of Antwerp sentenced the leader of the Sharia4Belgium group to 12 years on similar charges in one of the largest cases of its kind in Europe.

After the Verviers raid, the government deployed troops outside major institutions in Belgium including government buildings, EU premises and diplomatic missions.
Link


Europe
Sharia4Belgium leader sentenced to 12 years' in prison
2015-02-11
[CSMONITOR] A radical Islamic group that recruited youngsters to fight in Syria was a terrorist organization that wanted to violently overthrow democracy and replace it with strict sharia law, a Belgian court ruled Wednesday in a case that played out against a backdrop of soaring terror fears.

The court in Antwerp sentenced the Sharia4Belgium group's "charismatic leader," Fouad Belkacem, to 12 years' imprisonment and gave dozens of other members lower sentences. Belkacem, who was led into court in handcuffs by police in body armor, smiled as he listened to the judgment.

The verdicts came in one of Belgium's biggest ever terror trials -- 46 Moslems were originally indicted, though only a handful appeared in court. Others are believed to be fighting with Sunni gangs in Syria or to have died in its civil war.

Clamping down on the Sharia4Belgium network, which was disbanded more than two years ago, appears to have done little to rein in Islamic holy warriors in the country.
An Nahar adds:
Moslem convert Jejoen Bontinck, 19 -- whose father brought him home from Syria in a celebrated case and who later became a key prosecution witness -- received a 40-month suspended sentence. The other members of the group were sentenced to between three and five years in prison, with some of the sentences being suspended.
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Europe
In Europe, parents' dismay as Syria jihad lures troubled teens
2015-02-15
In which the Darwinian culling proceeds apace, as the foolish and the vicious volunteer.
[Ynet] For parents in Antwerp, ruling in trial for those accused of fostering Islamist violence in Syria will never explain why their two teenagers, with no Moslem heritage, abandoned comfortable homes to take up arms in Middle East.

As Belgium braces for a verdict in Europe's biggest trial for those accused of fostering Islamist violence in Syria, much attention is on poor Moslem immigrant communities struggling in a region blighted by youth unemployment.

For parents in Antwerp, a city on high alert since the Charlie Hebdo
...A lefty French satirical magazine, home of what may well be the majority if the active testicles left in Europe...
 massacre in Gay Paree and police raids on Belgian jihadists, Wednesday's ruling will never explain why their two sporty teenagers, with no Moslem heritage, abandoned comfortable homes to take up arms in the Middle East.

And whatever sentences may be given to their sons, Brian De Mulder's mother and 's father both say the damage done by those who recruited them - harm that includes lost jobs and disrupted homes for parents and siblings - cannot be undone.

"For me there is no difference to a sect," Dimitri Bontinck, 41, told Rooters. Local group Sharia4Belgium enticed his then 18-year-old son, Jejoen, to travel to fight in Syria, he said, leaving him and Jejoen's Nigerian-born mother distraught.

"The way they are groomed, the way they are initiated, the way they take on new names, the way they have their rituals", it all attracted youngsters going through moments of adolescent angst, Bontinck said - in Jejoen's case, a failed teen romance.

With Belgium outstripping its European neighbors in providing imported muscle for the likes of Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
 and al Qaeda - some 350 from a country of just 11 million - Bontinck made national headlines by risking his own life to travel, three times, to the war zone, eventually managing to bring his son home.

Now 20, Jejoen Bontinck has been a key witness in the trial on terrorism charges of leaders of Sharia4Belgium. But he also faces up to four years in prison himself as one of just nine of the 46 defendants present. The other accused, like 21-year-old Brian De Mulder, are still in Syria. Or may already be dead.

De Mulder's Brazilian mother Ozana Rodrigues says she still weeps every day for her son, once a promising youth soccer player. She believes it was being dropped by his professional club, at age 17, that led Brian to religious extremism, and violence.

Disdain for infidels
Like Jejoen Bontinck, Brian De Mulder was converted to Islam and quickly became very devout, dressing in robes, insisting on halal meat and criticising his mother and sisters for dressing immodestly.

One day he announced he wanted to volunteer for charity work in Syria: "I argued with him saying that there were plenty of opportunities here," Rodrigues said. "He told me he didn't want to because all the people here were infidels."

She moved the family from Antwerp to the countryside. But Brian kept in touch with his radical friends. One morning, Rodrigues said, "I went to his room and noticed he had gone. They had taken my son."

Two years have since passed. Brian has sent word he is in Syria but they have little contact.

"An event can happen in the life of person that acts as a catalyst," said Ghent University's Bilal Benyaich, a political scientist who has studied the radicalization of young Belgians. "They find themselves outside of the system and believe it's society's fault they have suffered."

"They find solace in radical Islam. There's black and white and good and bad ... You feel liberated from this uncertainty and you suddenly have a goal."

But disruption and stigma hurt others. Dimitri Bontinck and Ozana Rodrigues both lost jobs. Brian's mother and 13-year-old sister are also homeless, relying on friends and family to house them.

The defendants have little sympathy from a public shocked by raids on jihadist cells last month that police said showed some Belgians were returning from Syria to attack their homeland. Two died in a shootout a week after Islamists killed 17 people in Gay Paree, at Charlie Hebdo newspaper and a Jewish grocery. Last summer, a gunman killed four people at Brussels' Jewish Museum.

European Union
...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
 leaders will agree to tighter counter-terrorism cooperation at a summit in the Belgian capital on Thursday. One priority is combating the radicalization of young EU citizens.

Dimitri Bontinck hopes the court will let his son seek a new life far from Belgium. Prosecutors want him to serve four years.

They have also demanded 15 years for Sharia4Belgium front man Fouad Belkacem, 32. He denies recruiting imported muscle for Syria.

Rodrigues hopes the judges will punish those she blames for taking her son but sees no consolation: "If my son had died in a car crash or got hit by a bullet, I could bury him," she sobbed. "I could say goodbye. But my son is in Syria. What can I do?"
Link


Europe
Belgium Proves Vital Jihadist Recruiting Hub
2014-10-05
[VOA News] This week, the trial of dozens of Sharia4Belgium members began in the Belgian city of Antwerp, ground zero of a very successful effort to recruit jihadists.

The krazed killer group is a big reason why Belgium has the largest per capita number of fighters of any Western European country in Syria, according to the International Center for the Study of Radicalisation.

"Everything is apparently better than Belgium," wrote Fouad Belkacem, the imprisoned leader of the disbanded Islamist group, in a statement posted to Facebook in 2013.

It was a sentiment apparently shared by an estimated 300 to 400 Belgian Moslems who have reportedly made their way to Syria to fight.

And Belgian fighters have been involved in some of the most high profile events unfolding in Syria.

At one point, murdered American journalist James Foley was held by a group of Sharia4Belgium forces of Evil in Syria, according to a Belgian returnee fighter Jejoen Bontinck. He claims to have been held with Foley. Bontinck said he was being held because he wanted to return to Belgium. He claims he went to Syria for humanitarian reasons, not to fight.
Link


Europe
Belgium Tries Suspected Syria Jihadist Group
2014-09-30
[AnNahar] Forty six people, most of them still on the lam, went on trial in Belgium on Monday for suspected membership of a group believed to be sending jihadist fighters to Syria.

Armed police guarded the court in the northern port city of Antwerp where 16 people alleged to be part of Sharia4Belgium, including its head Fouad Belkacem, are being tried on charges of leading a terrorist organization.

If convicted, they could face 20 years in prison.

The remaining 30 are being tried on charges of belonging to Sharia4Belgium.
I wonder how many will turn out to be connected to other terror organizations as well...like ISIS and al Nusra.
Present for the trial were Belkacem, a Salafist ideologue known for his sermons in the streets and on the Internet, and seven others.

The defendants who are on the lam are believed to be in Syria where some of them may have been killed, according to the federal justice office.

Investigators said Belkacem never traveled to Syria, unlike most of the members of the group, but he was the "catalyst" who prompted many to go and fight there.

Sharia4Belgium, based in Antwerp, campaigned for the introduction of Sharia Islamic law in Belgium.

In 2012, it said it was disbanding but the authorities suspect that it has continued to recruit dozens of volunteers to fight in Syria.

Officials say that up to 400 Belgian nationals may have gone to fight in Syria, with about a quarter having returned home.

The trial comes five months after a deadly attack on the Jewish museum in the center of Brussels raised fears of a resurgence of anti-Semitic violence in Europe and of terror strikes from imported muscle returning from Syria.

The main suspect in the attack which left four people dead is a Frenchie, Mehdi Nemmouche, who spent more than a year fighting with Islamist Death Eaters in Syria and is now also being held in Belgium on charges of "murder in a terrorist context".
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