Hassan Hamdaoui Module (Jihadi Entity, Belgium)

• Local Name: N/a
• Transliteration: N/a
• Alternatives: N/a
• Status: 2009 – 2010 (Defeated)
• Conflicts: European Islamist Militancy, Caucasian Islamist Militancy

The Hassan Hamdaoui Module [HHM] was a jihadi entity operating in the Belgian city of Antwerp. It was formed somewhere in 2009 by Hassan Hamdaoui with the aim of carrying out attacks in Belgium. Hamdaoui wanted to launch shooting rampages against a variety of targets, including the Jewish community, NATO troops, railroad infrastructure and sports stadiums.¹ He established contacts with a known jihadi financier in Saudi Arabia who promised to fund the operations.²

In late 2009, Belgian security services started surveying the cell following the interception of communications between Hamdaoui and his backer by American intelligence agents.³ The Saudi authorities arrested the financier in April 2010.⁴ This move left the HHM without guidance and financial support.

Hamdaoui and his associates subsequently came into contact with a group of Chechen jihadi operatives based in Antwerp. Longtime Ahmed Chatayev associate Saïd M’nari is believed to have acted as an intermediary.⁵ The HHM reportedly began raising funds for the Caucasus Emirate [IK; Imarat Kavkaz].⁶ A number of HHM members also attempted to attend training camps in Chechnya. The prospective jihadis failed to reach Russia.⁷ Around the same time, several members of the HHM joined the Shari’a for Belgium Movement [Sh4B] over the course of 2010.⁸ M’nari even became a prominent figure in the movement.⁹

Belgian authorities rolled up the HHM in November 2010 and arrested seven of its members during a series of police raids in Antwerp.¹⁰ Associates of allied Chechen jihadi networks were subsequently rounded up in Austria, Germany and the Netherlands.¹¹ Hamdaoui was sentenced to five years in prison by a Belgian court in 2011.¹² A dozen other cell members escaped punishment.

By 2013, several cadres of the module had traveled to Syria to fight in the ranks of the jihadi forces.¹³ Hamdaoui and his brothers were among those who left Belgium.¹⁴ Hamdaoui surrendered to the Belgian authorities when he returned to Europe after a few weeks.¹⁵

In January 2014, a court sentenced Hamdaoui to a longer prison term following a retrial.¹⁶ Eleven associates who had earlier gone free were now also handed prison sentences. An appeals court canceled most of the convictions over minor procedural mistakes in December 2014.¹⁷ In early 2016, a court in Ghent again convicted the militants, but the verdicts were later cancelled by cassation.¹⁸ In March 2019, another appeals court quashed all convictions and rejected all evidence presented by the prosecution.¹⁹