Menad Benchellali

Menad Benchellali is a convicted terrorist arrested in France in December 2002,^[1] and the reported brains behind the so-called Chechen Network, a group of Islamists who plotted a number of abortive terrorist attacks on French soil. ^[2]

Benchellali was arrested as part of an investigation into efforts by French Islamists to send volunteers to fight Russian forces as part of the Second Chechen War.^[1] In January 2004, a number of Benchellali's associates were arrested by French police, who claimed to have thwarted chemical or biological weapons attacks.^[1]

Benchellali himself is reported to have been a chemical weapons specialist, and was known to his associates as The Chemist.^[3] French investigators assert that, when Benchellali returned to France, from Afghanistan, he built a home lab in his bedroom, where he manufactured ricin.

Benchellali is reported to have sent his younger brother and a friend, Nizar Sassi, to Afghanistan.^[4] Mourad and Sassis were captured and detained in Guantanamo.

Benchellali, was convicted, along with 24 others, on June 14, 2006 for their roles in planning a terrorist attack that was to have taken place in France to support Chechen independence.^[5] Benchellali was described as the group's leader, and received a 10-year sentence. Benchellali's father, a younger brother, and his mother were also convicted for their roles.

Mourad Benchellali published a book about his experiences, and on June 14, 2006 the New York Times published an op-ed by Mourad, in which he blamed Menad for tricking him into attending a military training camp on what he thought would be a kind of vacation.^[6][7] Mourad said he was looking forward to his day in court, for attending that training camp, after spending years in detention, without charge, in Guantanamo.