Hassan Hamdaoui (Jihadi Militant, Belgium)

• Full name: Hassan Hamdaoui
• Pseudonym: Abu Mushab al-Afghani
• Alternatives: N/a
• Location: Belgium, fmr Syria
• Affiliation: fmr Hassan Hamdaoui Module [HHM], fmr Victory Front for the People of the Levant [JaNS]

Hassan Hamdaoui is a jihadi of Moroccan descent from the Belgian city of Antwerp. He is a member of a notorious Islamist crime family.¹ In 2009, Hamdaoui gathered associates and started making plans to carry out attacks in Belgium. He got into contact with a Saudi jihadi to fund his operations and provide guidance.² Hamdaoui and his companions sought to target Antwerp’s Jewish community, NATO troops, railroad infrastructure and sports stadiums.³ The plot fell through when Saudi security forces arrested the financier in April 2010.⁴

Hamdaoui subsequently came into contact with Chechen militants based in Antwerp.⁵ He reportedly started raising funds for the Caucasus Front [IK; Imarat Kavkaz].⁶ At the same time, he also assisted several of his associates who made an aborted attempt to travel to Chechnya for training.⁷

In November 2010, Belgian authorities arrested Hamdaoui and rolled up his module.⁸ A court sentenced him to five years in prison for planning a terrorist attack in 2011.⁹ The conviction was confirmed in December 2012.¹⁰ The authorities released Hamdaoui in April 2013 in the run-up to a retrial.¹¹

Weeks before his retrial in the summer of 2013, Hamdaoui fled to Syria and reportedly linked up with the Support Front for the People of the Levant [JaNS; Jabhat al-Nusra li-Ahli ash-Sham].¹² He returned to Belgium a few months later and surrendered to the police in October 2013.¹³

In January 2014, Hamdaoui was sentenced to twelve years in prison for his earlier activities.¹⁴ Another court gave him an additional two-year prison sentence for having joined a terrorist organization in Syria in March 2015.¹⁵ The case against Hamdaoui proved problematic and after a lengthy appeals process, judges quashed some of his convictions in early 2019.¹⁶ He is known for causing trouble in prison and has used violence against guards on several occasions.¹⁷ Hamdaoui stabbed and injured a female guard in January 2021.¹⁸