Khalid al-Fawwaz

From Infogalactic: the planetary knowledge core
Jump to: navigation, search

Khalid Abdulrahman al-Fawwaz (Arabic: خالد الفواز‎‎; kunya: Abu Omar al-Sebai (أبو عمر)‎[1] is a Saudi who was under indictment in the United States since 1998,[2] accused of helping to prepare the 1998 United States embassy bombings. He was extradited to the United States and arraigned in October 2012.[3]

Al-Fawwaz appears in UN 1267 Committee's list of individuals belonging to or associated with al-Qaeda,[4] and is embargoed as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist by the US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control.[5]

According to the Treasury statement, al-Fawwaz was born on August 25, 1962. He moved to London in 1994. He was appointed by Osama bin Laden as the first head of the media organ called the Advice and Reform Committee in London, where he met Adel Abdel Bari and Abu Qatada, amongst others.[2] In 1995, while bin Laden was in Sudan, al-Fawwaz was said to be attempting to pave the way for bin Laden to move to Britain.[6]

He was arrested as part of Operation Challenge, which arrested seven men living in Britain through use of the Prevention of Terrorism Act 1989, accusing them of links to al-Jihad.[7][8][9][10][11] One of the men was charged with possession of a weapon.[12][13] Six months after the arrests, British Muslims staged a demonstration in front of 10 Downing Street to protest the continued incarceration of the seven men.[14]

L'Houssaine Kherchtou, testifying for the United States, claimed that al-Fawwaz had been the leader of an "Abu Bakr Siddique camp", which he contradictingly placed in Hayatabad, Pakistan or Khost, Afghanistan.[1][15]

His trial, along with his co-defendant Abu Anas al Libi, aka “Nazih al Raghie,” aka “Anas al Sebai,” was scheduled to begin on 3 November 2014, before Judge Lewis A. Kaplan.[16] At the same time, his co-conspirator, Abdel Bari, pled guilty.[17]

He was sentenced to life on 15 May 2015.[18]

The term Londonistan is due in large part to his activities.[19]

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 Daily Telegraph, Worldwide trail of bloodshed that leads to suburban London, September 19, 2001
  2. 2.0 2.1 Copy of indictment USA v. Usama bin Laden et al., Center for Nonproliferation Studies, Monterey Institute of International Studies
  3. Emily S. Rueb, "Extradited Muslim Cleric and 4 Other Terrorism Suspects Appear in American Courts", New York Times, Oct. 6, 2012.
  4. UN 1267 Committee banned entity list
  5. US Treasury banned entity list
  6. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. Hoge, Warren. New York Times, "Britain arrests 7 suspected of links to Bin Laden", September 24, 1998
  8. The Guardian, Police hold Islam cleric 'in fishing expedition', March 16, 1999
  9. Associated Press, "Police continue questioning of seven arrested in terrorism probe ", September 24, 1998
  10. Al-Sharq al-Awsat, Position of Fundamentalists in Britain, March 23, 1999
  11. UPI, "Egypt Helps Britain Round Up Terrorists", September 25, 1998
  12. Al-Sharq al-Awsat, "British Muslims cited on arrest of fundamentalists", September 29, 1998
  13. Al-Sharq al-Awsat, "Egyptian Information said to have helped in UK arrests", September 28, 1998
  14. al-Sharq al-Awsat, "Islamic fundamentalist groups planning 12th March Downing St. Protest", March 5, 1999
  15. O'Neill, Sean. Daily Telegraph, The terrorist trained to fly bin Laden's plane, September 21, 2001
  16. http://www.justice.gov/nsd/pr/international-terrorism-defendant-pleads-guilty-manhattan-federal-court
  17. nypost.com: "Dad of ‘John the Beatle’ suspect admits Osama terror plot", 19 Sep 2014
  18. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  19. jamestown.org: "Londonistan" by Stephen Ulph, 26 Feb 2004