APPREHENDED
- Full name: Mohammed Amri
- Pseudonym: N/a
- Alternatives: N/a
- Location: France, fmr Bulgaria, fmr Tunisia
- Affiliation: Artigat and Toulouse Network [FAT]
Mohammed Amri (°1960) is a Tunisian Islamist from Sidi Bouzid who has lived in France for decades. Although he played a key role in the spread of Salafi jihadism in the country, Amri remains an enigmatic figure. In the late 1990s, he initiated his acquaintance Fabien Clain into Islam.1 Clain subsequently converted his entire family. Amri followed the Clain family as they moved to Toulouse. In June 2001, he married Fabien Clain’s sister Anne.2 The couple moved to the small village of Ambax in the early 2000s.3 At their home, Amri and his wife hosted gatherings of radical Islamists linked to the so-called Artigat and Toulouse Network [FAT; Filière d’Artigat et Toulouse] led by Olivier Corel and his brother-in-law.4 These meetings worried French authorities enough to put them under surveillance.
In August 2015, Amri departed from France with his wife and some of their children in a bid to join the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant [DaIISh; Dawlat al-Islamiya fi-Iraq wal ash-Sham] but was prevented from crossing into Syria by Turkish security forces.5 The family spent some time in Bulgaria before making a new attempt to join the DaIISh in the summer of 2016.6 Turkish authorities apprehended them before they could reach Syria. In September 2016, Amri and his wife were expelled to France where they were arrested upon arrival.7 The couple was later brought to trial. Amri was brazenly evasive during court proceedings.8 On Nov. 20, 2019, judges sentenced him to ten years imprisonment for his associations with terrorism and ordered that he be expulsed from France after serving his term.9
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