Menad Benchellali is a convicted terrorist arrested inFrance 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 theSecond 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 achemical weapons specialist, and was known to his associates as The Chemist.[3] French investigators assert that, when Benchellali returned to France, fromAfghanistan, he built a home lab in his bedroom, where he manufacturedricin.
Benchellali is reported to have sent his younger brother and a friend,Nizar Sassi, to Afghanistan.[4]Mourad and Sassi 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 supportChechen 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 theNew 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.
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