Who is really Kaïs al-Abdallah? A Syrian asylum seeker who has found refuge in Germany to flee the persecution of the Islamic State (IS) organization? Or an important framework of the jihadist group infiltrated in Europe to form dormant cells? The trajectory of mystery of this 41 -year -old Syrian graduated in chemistry is worthy of a spy novel. His hunt has freely inspired a film, Ghostsreleased indoors in July 2024.
If the elusive journey of Kaïs al-Abdallah has fed the imagination of the writers, he also fueled an improbable judicial soap. The German justice, which looked into his case for more than a year, had finally undoubtedly ranked his investigation open for “suspicions of terrorist activities” in November 2016, for lack of evidence. And it is ultimately the work carried out in the shadows by a group of Syrian activists in Germany, the “Yaqaza cell”, which led him before the special Assize Court of Paris, where he has been tried since February 17 at the trial of the EI jail.
After the two French jihadists Mehdi Nemmouche and Abdelmalek Tanem, returned to their role as guards during the sequestration of Western hostages of IS, Kaïs al-Abdallah is the third and last accused of this trial to have been questioned, Thursday, March 14. He is not accused of having served as a jailer: he is suspected of being an IS executive possibly involved in the abduction of two French journalists, Nicolas Hénin and Pierre Torres, selected hostage in Syria between June 2013 and April 2014.
“Abu Hamza TNT”
After having followed a chemistry course in Rakka, Kaïs al-Abdallah arrived in Germany at the time of the migration crisis of summer 2015. He flowed peaceful days in Lower Saxony and registered in the prestigious Georg-August University of Göttingen in order to continue his studies of chemistry when a Syrian refugee presented himself, on September 7, 2015, in a police station Dortmund to denounce it. Under the kounya (War name) of “Abu Hamza Kemawi” (“Abu Hamza the chemist”), or “Abu Hamza TNT”, Kaïs al-Abdallah would actually be a member of IS security services specializing in trapped vehicles.
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