APPREHENDED
- Full name: Soufiane Abbar el-Houari
- Pseudonym: Abu Sufian
- Alternatives: Abbar al-Hawari
- Location: Belgium, Afghanistan
- Affiliation: Soufiane el-Houari Module [SHM], fmr Support Front for the People of the Levant [JaNS]
Soufiane el-Houari (°1970) is a jihadi operative from Algeria. Long a non-observant Muslim, he became attracted to radical Islam in his late twenties and soon became acquainted with terrorists. In 1998, the Algerian authorities arrested him.1 After Houari was freed in 2000, he traveled across Europe. In 2001, he moved to Georgia from where he reportedly fought alongside jihadis against the Russian army in Chechnya.2
Houari and two associates were captured by locals as he crossed into Georgia in April 2002.3 He was subsequently extradited to the American authorities which held him at a detention center in Afghanistan before transferring him to Guantanamo Bay where he was kept between 2003 and 2008.4 In November 2008, Houari was handed over to Algeria. He subsequently traveled to several countries before he settled in Belgium.5
Houari moved to Syria in 2013 and apparently joined the Support Front for the People of the Levant [JaNS; Jabhat al-Nusra li-Ahli ash-Sham]. While in Syria, Houari gave sermons in which he called for attacks against Europe.6
In 2014, Houari left Syria and legally settled in the Laken suburb of Brussels.7 He soon attracted a small number of followers. Houari began recruiting jihadis to fight in Iraq and Syria. At the same time, he was also raising funds for these militants through a series of burglaries.8 Houari and several of his associates were arrested by the Belgian authorities in July 2015 following a failed attempt to rob a drugs dealer in the Hoboken suburb of Antwerpen.9 A court sentenced him to twelve years imprisonment for his activities in July 2016.10
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