EXECUTED
- Full name: Abdelrahim Mohammed Abdullah al-Mesmari
- Pseudonym: Wissam
- Alternatives: N/a
- Location: fmr Egypt, fmr Libya
- Affiliation: fmr Assembly of the Partisans of Islam [JAaI], fmr Holy Warriors’ Consultative Council of Derna [MSCD]
Abdelrahman al-Mesmari (°1992) was a jihadi from the Libyan city of Derna. He turned to Salafism following the fall of the Kadhafi regime in 2011.1 Mesmari joined the Holy Warriors Shura Council of Derna [MSCD; Majlis Shura al-Mujahideen Derna] in late 2014.2 As a member of the group, he took part in fighting with Khalifa Haftar’s army and local branches of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant [DaIISh; Dawlat al-Islamiya fi-Iraq wal ash-Sham].3 Mesmari also served as a bomb-maker for the outfit.4
In 2016, Mesmari got to know Imadaddin Hamid who was training MSCD fighters at the time.5 He eventually became a confidant of the Egyptian jihadi and joined his Assembly of the Partisans of Islam [JAaI; Jama’at Ansar al-Islam] in August 2016.6 Mesmari served as a key logistical operative for the JAaI and helped train recruits in bomb-making and weapons handling.7 Later that summer, he crossed into Egypt with the JAaI.8
Mesmari fought in the Oct. 31, 2017 gun battles between the JAaI and security forces who had chanced upon them near Bahariya.9 Sixteen policemen and fifteen JAaI fighters were killed in the fighting. Mesmari escaped unharmed but was arrested by Egyptian troops during the subsequent operation in which Hamid and several of his associates were eliminated.10 The authorities paraded him on television and forced Mesmari to talk about the JAaI’s plans to attack Egypt.11 On Nov. 17, 2019, he was sentenced to death by an Egyptian court.12 Mesmari was hanged on Jun. 27, 2020.13
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