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 murder 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.
It also had links with an organisation called the Moroccan Islamic Combattant Group (GICM) and the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat in Algeria, which has become Al-Qaeda's North African branch, the minister said.
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.
