Trial of the November 13 attacks: did the Belgian federal police want to recruit Osama Atar as an “informant”?
JUSTICE – A Belgian investigator detailed this Thursday the circumstances of Osama Atar’s departures to Syria, the mastermind of the Paris attacks and then the return to Belgium, when he had been convicted of serious acts. Some suspect the Belgian police of having wanted to recruit him as an informer.
Aurélie Sarrot –
Did the Belgian police want to recruit Osama Atar, the future sponsor of the Paris and Brussels attacks as a double agent? This is what some say and this is one of the questions that was asked this Thursday at the trial of the Paris attacks to the anonymized Belgian investigator “447,761,902”. Heard in video from the federal prosecutor’s office, the police officer specializing in anti-terrorism mentioned in particular the departures of Osama Atar in Syria and his return to Belgium.
Before this annoying questioning was put to him, the police officer specializing in anti-terrorism recalled that Osama Atar was born on May 5, 1984 in Brussels to Moroccan parents who immigrated to Belgium, that he was nicknamed “The chemist” because he had followed a technical education with 15 hours of chemistry and that his kounya (his nickname) was Abu Ahmed. His first trip to Syria dates back to the early 2000s.“He would not have made any precise acquaintance during this trip, tells him about a tourist trip”, specifies the investigator “447.761.902”. In 2003, he left for Damascus to take Arabic lessons. “Osama Atar would have been in contact during his lessons with professors hostile to the United States. He would have illegally entered Iraq in 2004. There were small groups present in Syria who could have allowed candidates to join in the zone. of fights “ adds “447,761,902”.
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The extraordinary trial of the November 13 attacks
“Save Osama, the forgotten Belgian detained in Iraq”
Then in February 24, 2005, Osama Atar was arrested in Iraq under a false identity (Ali Salah Mohamed) at a checkpoint. “Several houses are visited, the soldiers found a file with 200 jihadists on which appears the name of Osama Atar who would have returned to the territory in July 2004, detail of the Belgian investigator. On February 27, 2007, he was sentenced for illegal access to the territory. He went to the Supreme Court, on May 20, 2007, he was sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment for having entered Iraqi territory illegally “.
Osama Atar is incarcerated in various prisons. Then in 2010, his family organized a press conference in Belgium to request his release for health reasons, notably evoking the thinness of the person concerned and a tumor. A photo of this press conference is projected on the large screen in the courtroom. Gatherings also take place in the Belgian capital under the title “Save Oussama, the forgotten Belgian detained in Iraq”. The Atar family then benefits from political support and associations and wins the case.
Osama Atar returned to Belgium on September 16, 2012 before being released. On September 18, 2012, Oussama Atar was heard by the Belgian police. He says he has no illness and is not on medication. A judge met him on examination for participation in the activities of a terrorist group, but nothing happened. He is not placed under surveillance. Then on December 13, 2013 he left for Istanbul and will not take the return flight. “He is leaving to join Daesh in Syria”, underlines the investigator “447,761,902”.
His illness, “it’s a big lie”
The attorney general takes the floor and refers to a message that Osama Atar wrote to his sister before his return to Belgium. “‘My health is getting better and better, I just have trouble regaining weight, writes the future brain of the attacks.” We are not in terminal cancer, this is all a big lie! “ comments the representative of the national anti-terrorism prosecution as if to introduce the rest of his remarks.
Then he goes on: “Did the Federal Judicial Police issue a passport to Osama Atar?”. “No”, assures the Belgian investigator. “Some say that the police would have liked to recruit Osama Atar as a source of information, as an informant and that as a result a passport would have been issued to him.” The police competition.
“How does this man who has returned from a heavy sentence in Iraq manifested for acts of terrorism find himself indicted by a Belgian judge in 2012 for participation in a terrorist organization and that nothing happens?, asks Me Chemla, lawyer for the civil parties on the sidelines of the hearing. We have to understand why Belgium is leaving him free in this way. There is a thesis which is quite obvious and which is launched by the prosecution according to which Ooussama Atar should have had a source for the Belgian intelligence services, in any case, that is what the Belgian services thought. And he manipulated them in an obvious way. He organized his local network in Belgium with his cousins the brothers Ibrahim and Khalid El Bakraoui. As soon as it was ready, he left for Syria, and from there he planned the attacks. “
Targeted by an arrest warrant dated December 28, 2016, Osama Atar would have died in November or December 2017. He is accused in the context of the trial of the attacks of November 13, 2013 five offenses, including the leadership of a terrorist organization , for which he faces life imprisonment.
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