A French criminal gang carried out armed robberies to finance the al Qaeda terrorist network, Paris prosecutors have alleged in a trial that begins Monday.
Led by French-Algerian Ouassini Cherifi – AKA “The Turk” – the eight men are accused of taking part in a botched raid on a cash delivery company in 2005.
They are also accused of an armed robbery in which documents from the “Imprimerie Nationale” – France’s official printing works – were stolen.
The gang operated out of the back room of a restaurant owned by Cherifi called “Le Rendez-vous Gourmand” in the Clichy-Sous-Bois suburb of Paris, which prosecutors say served as a logistics centre for the gang’s operations.
Assault rifles
On information from one of the arrested suspects, police discovered an arsenal of weapons in a nearby lock-up garage.
The haul included stocks of dynamite, TNT, an AK-47 assault rifle, a French military-issue FAMAS rifle, a number of handguns, spare magazines and hundreds of rounds of ammunition.
Police also found a radio transmitter, a blue flashing light of the type that is fixed to the roof of a car, police uniforms and bullet-proof vests.
The court accuses 36-year-old Cherifi of travelling to Turkey in September 2005, where he is alleged to have met with jihadist groups and to have committed to funding their operations through his criminal activities.
Fake passports
Cherifi was previously convicted in 2002 for trafficking fake passports to radical Islamist groups. He was jailed for five years and released on parole before the 2005 robberies.
Other defendants include 39-year-old Tunisian Mourad Feridhi, who has been convicted three times for offenses including armed robbery, 34-year-old Manoubi Ben Hadj Brahim and 31-year-old Hichem Ezzikouri, all of whom have been remanded in custody since their arrest.
Four others have been on bail pending the trial.
Some of the gang members have admitted being part of a criminal group – but all deny they were acting to raise cash for terrorists.
The trial in Paris is taking place before a special criminal court for serious crimes affecting national security and is composed entirely of judges.
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