AT LARGE
- Full name: Bassam Abu Atta Ayachi
- Pseudonym: N/a
- Alternatives: N/a
- Location: French/Syrian, active in Syria, Belgium
- Affiliation: Falcons of the Levant Brigade [LSaS], Bassam Ayachi Network [BAN]
Bassam Ayachi (°1946) is a longtime Syrian-born French jihadi operative. In the 1960s, he moved to France as a young man to study.1 Ayachi met a local woman whom he later married. Through this marriage he obtained French citizenship. He later ran a restaurant in Aix-en-Provence.2 Ayachi moved to Belgium in 1992 following the fraudulent bankruptcy of his restaurant in France.3 He settled in the Molenbeek suburb of Brussels and started preaching at a local mosque.4 Ayachi became instrumental in introducing militant Salafism in the immigrant-heavy northern and western suburbs of the Belgian capital.
In the early 1990s, Ayachi founded an association that instructed local youths in Islam and organized summer camps in the Ardennes. These camps came under Belgian police surveillance due to their noncivil nature.5 In 1997, Ayachi established the Belgian Islamic Center [CIB; Centre Islamique Belge] which provided religious instruction to local Muslims.6 The association’s prayer house soon became a hotbed of radical Salafi activity.
At the CIB, Ayachi preached intolerance towards the West, Jews and sexual minorities. In his sermons, he advocated jihad and martyrdom. Ayachi also presided over illegal marriages, conducted exorcisms and performed religious healings.7 His activities were generally ignored by the Belgian authorities. Ayachi and his CIB also provided logistical support for illegal immigrants and militants returning from the Balkans. In 1997, Ayachi was briefly detained for providing fake identity papers to Islamists who had fought in Bosnia.8 He cultivated ties with individuals connected to international jihadi organizations, including al-Qa’ida and its branches. Among his acquaintances were the terrorists who killed Northern Alliance general Ahmed Massood in Afghanistan in September 2001.9
In the early 2000s, Ayachi and his network came under increased scrutiny from the Belgian authorities. The activities of the Bassam Ayachi Network [BAN] continued unimpeded however. The network was linked to cells facilitating the travel of jihadis to Afghanistan and Iraq. BAN members, including Ayachi’s son, maintained websites that advocated jihad and disseminated al-Qa’ida propaganda.10
At the same time, Ayachi joined the upstart Islamist political party of his long-time associate Jean-François Bastin; the Citizenship and Prosperity Party [PCP; Parti Citoyenneté et Prospérité]. The fundamentalist party called for the establishment of an Islamic state in Belgium. Ayachi, his son and Bastin led the PCP in the 2003 Belgian legislative elections. They received thousands of votes, but failed to quality for representation in parliament.11 In 2004, the party split due to tensions between the Ayachis and Bastin who sought to broaden its support base.12
Ayachi and his deputy Raphaël Gendron were arrested by Italian police at the port of Bari in November 2008. The men were caught transporting illegal immigrants in a camper on a Greek ferry.13 While both men were in jail, the Italian authorities intercepted conversations between Ayachi and Gendron in which they discussed plans for attacks throughout Europe.14 An Italian court sentenced both jihadis to eight years in prison at a trial in 2011.15 An appeals court acquitted both terrorists due to insufficient evidence in July 2012.16
In December 2013, Ayachi traveled to Syria.17 He soon became the spiritual leader and Islamic judge for the Falcons of the Levant Brigade [LSaS; Liwa Suqur al-Sham] in the Idlib governorate.18
Ayachi became a vocal opponent of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant [DaIISh; Dawlat al-Islamiya fi-Iraq wal ash-Sham].19 He also objected to the presence of large numbers of foreign fighters in Syria.20 His criticism attracted the hostility of his rivals. In February 2015, suspected DaIISh militants targeted his vehicle in a roadside bomb explosion. Ayachi was badly injured and lost an arm in the incident.21 The DaIISh again tried to kill him when gunmen raided his residence in November 2016. Ayachi was absent, but the assailants shot and killed his bodyguard.22 In July 2017, Ayachi’s home was targeted in a grenade attack after the LSaS had been dragged into conflict with another rival jihadi organization, the Organization for the Liberation of the Levant [HTS; Hayat Tahrir al-Sham].23 A few days later, HTS fighters briefly abducted Ayachi.24
Ayachi apparently left Syria somewhere in early 2018. On Mar. 27, police arrested him in northern France.25 Earlier that month, the authorities linked Ayachi to a jihadi who had traveled to Japan.26
References