Wednesday 15 October 2008

Abu Nidal paid Abdelkader Belliraj to kill Jews

Source: DH

Belgian newspapers have revealed that terrorist suspect Abdelkader Belliraj, a Moroccan-born Belgian citizen, was Abu Nidal's hitman in Belgium.

He was the leader of a six-strong "killing cell" operating from Belgium and is suspected of having committed six murders in the country. Nidal paid him a fee of "between 200 and 300 dollars to identify and eliminate Jewish targets". Obviously for Nidal Jewish life was exceedingly cheap.

Belliraj was arrested in Morocco in February with other 30 radical islamists and his trial will start tomorrow in Rabat. To complicate matters further he was also a police informant in Belgium.

In his confession Belliraj admitted to having murdered 48-year old Dr Joseph Wybran, head of the immunology department at the Erasme Hospital in Brussels. As chairman of the umbrella Belgian Jewish organizations (CCOJB), he was a prominent figure, and as such easy to target. He was gunned down in the hospital parking area on October 3, 1989.

Another victim was 65-year old Raoul Schouppe, a retired soldier who had opened a greengrocer's shop. Mr Schouppe was shot in the head in his shop on July 23, 1988, by Belliraj who mistakently thought he was Jewish ... because he "looked Jewish".

On July 23, 1988, Belliraj struck again and killed 53-year old Marcel Bille because "he was a deviant Jewish homosexual who paid young male Moroccans from poor backgrounds in return for sexual favours". Again, Mr. Bille was not Jewish.

A week before 9/11, Belliraj travelled to Afghanistan to meet Hassan el-Haski, linked to the Madrid terrorist bombings in March 2002, al-Qaida military leader Mohamed Atef, a.k.a. Abou Hafs, and was invited to a meal with Ben Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri. He was asked to find chemical and biological weapons specialists in Belgium.

From: Islam in Europe (Feb. 20, 2008)

"A Belgian of Moroccan origin was arrested earlier this week on suspicion of heading an important terrorist organization. The man, who lives in Evergem, had committed six murders in Belgium in the years 1986-1989, according to the Moroccan Minister of Internal Affairs. The murders had not yet been solved by the Belgian authorities.

At the beginning of the week the Moroccan authorities dismantled an important terrorist organization, headed by a man with Belgian and Moroccan nationality. The man is Abdelkader Belliraj (51), who lives in Evergem, next to Ghent.

According to the Moroccan minister of internal affairs Belliraj, also known as "Ilyass" and "Abdelkrim", was born in Nador in northern Morocco in 1957. According to Benmoussa he had double national and had committed six crimes in Belgium between 1986 and 1989. The offenders were never found.

Benmoussa said that now that they know who had committed the murders, they will inform Belgium so that they could reopen the investigation via Interpol. According to the minister the murders were committed before the establishment of the terrorism network in 1992.

The network did commit or attempted several robberies in 1992-2001 in order to finance their activities. They are responsible for the spectacular robbery of the Brinks headquarters in Luxembourg in 2000, where they netted 17.5 million euro.

In 1996 the network tried to kill a Moroccan Jew and had yet planned attacks in 1992, 1996, 2002, 2004 and 2005.

In house searches in Casablanca and Nador the Moroccan police found a whole weapons arsenal with Kalashnikovs, other machineguns and detonators. All together, 32 people were arrested."

Belgium: Smuggling weapons in coffins
Moroccan terrorism suspect's murky trail
Morocco’s unlikely group of terrorism suspects

No comments: