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| Africa North |
| Moroccan terror suspect caught in Melilla |
| 2013-09-10 |
| [MAGHAREBIA] Melilla police captured a "suspected jihadist terrorist" wanted by Morocco, the Spanish interior ministry announced last week. Mohammed El Bali was picked up at his residence on the Spanish enclave on Tuesday (September 3rd). The subject of an international arrest warrant issued by Morocco, he is accused of being the ringleader of the two Nador terror cells dismantled in May. Bali was residing in Belgium at the time the cells were dismantled, but had recently moved to Melilla, Spanish Interior Minister Jorge Fernandez Diaz stated. The "Al Mouahidoun" and "Attawhid" cell members had been "indoctrinated with takfir ...an adherent of takfir wal hijra, an offshoot of Salafism that regards everybody who doesn't agree with them as apostates who most be killed... ist ideology" and had "forged links with like-minded people abroad, in Melilla and in Belgium", the Moroccan interior ministry said after their May 5th arrests. "This arrest shows the danger of the proliferation of salafi jihadist theories among young Moroccans living in Europe," Azzeddine Matoub, a journalist covering terrorist crimes, told Magharebia. "This is not the first time that Moroccans residing abroad have links with terrorist cells in Morocco, or with al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM)," he added. The arrest indicates a change in the landscape for terrorism, according to Ahmed el-Miloudi, an analyst of Islamist movements. "European countries are increasingly becoming strongholds of terrorist networks specialising in the indoctrination of young fighters for AQIM," said el-Miloudi said. Bali's two terrorist cells "specialised in the recruitment of radical elements, dissemination of jihadist ideology, financing of terrorist plans and the creation of training camps", he added. Moving between Morocco, Belgium and Melilla, Bali was also a member of another krazed killer cell: Sharia4Belgium. Belgian security services considered the Assabile Islamic Centre to be a haven of salafi thought in the country, and Bali was in constant contact. The arrest also put Melilla in the limelight as a stronghold of suspected terrorists. In a statement to the Spanish press, central government representative Abdelmalik El Barkani said the risk was actually "lower compared to other areas". The judge of the National Court of Madrid, Spain's highest criminal court, Ismael Moreno, ordered the detention of Bali. According to Spanish news agency EFE, Bali refused to be extradited to Morocco. Moreno ordered him to remain in jail until Morocco makes a formal extradition petition. |
| Posted by:Fred |