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  • Full name: Mélissa Frangi
  • Pseudonym: N/a
  • Alternatives: N/a
  • Location: Belgium
  • Affiliation: Khalid Zerkani Network [KZN]

Mélissa Frangi (°ca 1993) is a Lebanese-born Islamist who moved to Brussels with her Christian family when she was a child. Frangi converted to Islam during adolescence and became drawn to radical elements of the North African community in the city’s Molenbeek suburb.1 In October 2012, she got married to Yacine Azzaoui, a member of the so-called Khalid Zerkani Network [KZN].2 By 2014, Frangi and her husband turned into fervent supporters of the jihadi cause in Syria. They went on to recruit at least four families to live in territory under control of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant [DaIISh; Dawlat al-Islamiya fi-Iraq wal ash-Sham].3 These families included a Chechen woman with two children from the Dutch city of Maastricht.4 In the summer of 2014, Frangi’s husband went to Syria himself.5 On Jan. 15, 2015, Frangi was arrested at the airport of Charleroi as she was on her way to join Azzaoui.6 Frangi was given a suspended four-year prison sentence by a Brussels court on Nov. 25, 2015.7 She was only convicted for membership in a terrorist organization and was never brought to justice for her recruiting activities. Frangi remarried another Islamist following the death of Azzaoui in Syria in May 2017.8

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