At the trial of the November 13 attacks, the Paris Special Assize Court continues to hear from Belgian investigators. Belgium where most of the terrorists came from. This Thursday, December 2, a police officer came to draw a portrait of Osama Atar, the only accused to be tried for ” leadership of a terrorist organization “. He is the alleged mastermind of the attacks and is believed to have died in Syria at the end of 2017.
With Marine of La Moissonnière, of RFI’s France service
The first time he left for Syria, Osama Atar was only 17 years old. The year is 2001. The young man who has dropped out of school is spending a month’s vacation there. Two years later, he returned there to study Arabic then joined the ranks of al-Qaeda in Iraq and met the Syrian Abu Mohammed Al-Adnani, future number 2 of the Islamic State (IS) group.
In 2005, Osama Atar was arrested. He spent several years in prison, notably in Abu Ghraib. His family, supported by the Belgian authorities and NGOs, is organizing a campaign for him to be repatriated because he is supposedly seriously ill.
The faults of Belgian services
Osama Atar returned in 2012 and was indicted for terrorism. But he is not specially watched. Worse, a passport is issued to him. At the end of 2013, he returned to Syria where he took over as head of the EI group’s external operations unit, Copex, and piloted the attacks in Paris and Brussels.
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“ Did the Belgian authorities want to make him an informer? A double agent? “Asks the prosecution. ” I do not know », Repeats the investigator. Lawyers for civil parties and the defense return to the charge. The president finally intervened: ” There were flaws. It is certain, but we are not here to give good or bad points to the Belgian police officers. ”
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