Western Resistance

« UK: Two More Charged In Muslim Air Terror Plot | | UK: Plurality of Londoners Want to Ban Religious Schools »

September 7, 2006

France: Radical Islamist Cleric Is Deported

The man at left is Chellali Benchellali, a radical Muslim cleric who supported the Algerian Al-Qaeda linked terror group GSPC (Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat), and was convicted on terror charges earlier this year. Benchellali, as we reported on June 14 was among 27 people charged with plotting to make attacks upon Paris.

Chellali was given only a six month jail sentence, even though prosecutors had demanded he be given a six years. As he had spent time in custody awaiting trial, he was released. The radical cleric had been arrested in January 2004. He had been imam at a mosque in the suburb of Venissieux in Lyon, southern France. Benchellali and his wife Hafsa had been placed under "judicial investigation". There were also investigations to see if the Benchellali family were linked to the discovery of the toxin ricin (derived from the castor oil plant) in a northeast London apartment in January 2003. AFP reported then that his son Hafed had also been detained.

The interrogations of suspects led to claims that another of Benchellali's sons, Menad, had been trying to produce toxins involving ricin or botulinum. Menad Benchellali had been arrested in December 2002 in the northeastern suburbs of Paris in a sweep of suspected radicals, thought to be plotting attacks on French soil.

Another of Chellali's sons, Mourad, was a detainee in Guantanamo. We reported on his trial on July 11. Mourad claimed that his brother Menad had tricked him into travelling to Afghanistan, where he became sent to an Al Qaeda camp near Kandahar in July 2001. Mourad claimed: "When I arrived at the camp, I quickly became angry with my brother. I found myself in a world he'd told me nothing about. I met very dangerous people, I did terrible things. He took me into a world that was not my own."

Menad had been given a 10 year jail sentence on June 14 for being part of the so-called "Chechen group" which plotted attacks on French soil, and in which his father Chellali received his six month jail term. Hafed too received a jail term in June.

Now, news from Agence France Presse via Expatica relates that 61-year old Chelali Benchellali was today escorted to a plane at Orly airport, and then sent out of the country. His deportation, sending him back to Algiers in Algeria where he came from, was announced by the French interior ministry.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at September 7, 2006 11:09 AM

Comments

Post a comment