APPREHENDED
- Full name: Hicham Ben Abderrazek Berrabeh
- Pseudonym: N/a
- Alternatives: Ali Ben Hicham Rabeh
- Location: Tunisia
- Affiliation: Partisans of Shari’a in Tunisia [AST]
Hicham Berrabeh is a little-known Islamist militant who served as a senior member of the covert armed wing of the Partisans of Shari’a in Tunisia [AST; Ansar Achari’a] in the years following the 2011 Tunisian Revolution. He is also known to have facilitated the travel of AST members to Libya and Syria during that time.1 After most of the AST’s leaders had fled to Libya following the Tunisian authorities’ crackdown on the movement in 2014, Berrabeh was appointed as the leader of its armed wing by Khalid Chaib, the chief of the Brigade of Uqba Bin Nafa’a [KUIN; Katiba Uqba Ibn Nafaâ].2 He remained in contact with Libyan-based AST leaders such as Seifallah Ben Hassine and Ahmed Rouissi.3
Berrabeh tried to restructure the AST’s armed wing but was impeded by security forces which were actively hunting for him. In July 2014, Tunisia’s interior ministry issued a public search alert for him.4 Berrabeh was arrested on Aug. 02, 2014 as he tried to cross into Libya for a meeting with exiled leaders.5
Following his arrest, investigators found that Berrabeh had been making plans to carry out simultaneous attacks on politicians and the security forces.6 Five AST cells under his command were soon rolled up by the authorities.7 In December 2014, another four of Berrabeh’s associates were apprehended in the Kairouan governorate.8
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