Mehdi Aïda (Jihadi Militant, Belgium)

• Full name: Mehdi Aïda
• Pseudonym: N/a
• Alternatives: N/a
• Location: Belgium, fmr Turkey, fmr Syria
• Affiliation: Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant [DaIISh], Khalid Zerkani Network [KZN]

Mehdi Aïda (°1992) is an Islamist of North African descent from the Molenbeek suburb of Brussels. He was a member of Khalid Zerkani’s crime gang and was involved in credit scams.¹ In the early 2010s, Aïda became increasingly religious. By 2013, he had become active in the charity of Brussels-based Islamist radical Jean-Louis Denis.² Aïda also acted as a logistical operative of Zerkani’s group after it had morphed into a jihadi entity and seems to have assisted Yacine Azzaoui and his wife with their recruitment activities.³ He also had deep personal ties to the elements that would go on to form the Verviers cell of the Khalid Zerkani Network [KZN].⁴

Following two failed bids to go to Syria, Aïda finally made a successful departure for the Levant in late November 2014.⁵ He joined the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant [DaIISh; Dawlat al-Islamiya fi-Iraq wal ash-Sham] and had his family come over later that year.⁶ At first, Aïda appears to have been an assistant to former KZN companion Abdelhamid Abaaoud.⁷ He later served in the DaIISh’s Amniyat counter-intelligence wing.⁸

Aïda eventually moved to Turkey where police apprehended him in Istanbul in August 2017.⁹ Turkish authorities believed that he was planning to carry out a bomb attack in the city at the time of his arrest.¹⁰ In November 2017, Aïda was extradited to Belgium.¹¹ On May 28, 2019, a Belgian court sentenced him to four years in prison for his actions.¹²​