Jérôme Courtailler

Jerôme Courtailler is a French radical Islamic extremist jailed for attempting to blow up the US Embassy in France.

Travel

Jerôme later traveled first to Peshawar, Pakistan, and later attended an Afghan training camp, and is believed to have played a role in supplying the forged documents to the two men who assassinated Ahmed Shah Massoud in September 2001.[1]

Upon returning to France, he was placed on the CIA terrorist watchlist. The French police were alerted of this after he was arrested for shoplifting a pair of shoes in Calvados, France.[2]

Life

Courtailler grew up in an Alpine town. His father was a butcher who went bankrupt, divorced his mother, and moved to work in a meatpacking plant far away. He was raised Roman Catholic, and when to a Catholic school. He became addicted to drugs before converting to Islam at a Brighton mosque in 1996. Shortly thereafter he stayed in Zacarias Moussaoui's apartment, and afterwards travelled to an Al Qaeda's Khalden training camp in Afghanistan.[3]

Courtailler was held in the Netherlands, suspected of attempting to blow up the U.S. Embassy in France.[4] In 2002 the case was dismissed since information was obtained from illegally obtained wiretaps, however in 2004 following an appeal he was convicted to six years in prison.[3][5]

References

  1. ↑ Vidino, Lorenzo. "Al-Qaeda in Europe", 2006. Prometheus Books
  2. ↑ Rotella, Sebastian; David Zucchino (October 22, 2001). "Embassy plot offers insight into terrorist recruitment, training". The Advocate. Archived from the original on October 11, 2007. Retrieved 2007-05-09.
  3. 1 2 Europe Fears Islamic Converts May Give Cover for Extremism, New York Times, 19 July 2004
  4. ↑ Barnett, Antony (October 18, 2001). "UK student's 'key terror role'". London: The Guardian. Retrieved 2007-05-09.
  5. ↑ Gedye, Robin (22 June 2004). "Dutch appeal court jails embassy bomb plotters". The Telegraph. Retrieved 13 December 2017.


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