Moez Ben Abdelkader Fezzani

Moez Fezzani, also known as Abu Nassim, was born in Tunis on March 23 1969. At the time of the investigation, he was living in Milan. He was another member of a logistical-operational cell that was part of a broader network of extremists. This cell was dedicated mainly to document forgery but also to fencing stolen vehicles and operating a jihadist paramilitary training camp in Afghanistan. Some members of this cell had direct links with the Armed Islamic Group (GIA), and others participated in the war in Bosnia.
Fezzani Moez had many criminal precedents: theft, fencing, fraudulent misrepresentation, and money forgery. Likely for this reason, he also held many different aliases. He was also an associate of a cooperative called “Italycoop” with 9 other Maghrebis. The cooperative operated in many different sectors, ranging from cleaning to security and maintenance services. One of the associates, South Atef, had already been investigated in operation “Sfinge”.
Fezzani was arrested at the airport of Peshawar, Pakistan on August 27, 1997, together with two Afghani nationals who were waiting for him. In that instance Fezzani was found to be carrying a forged Pakistani visa. During an interrogation with Pakistani authorities, Fezzani stated he had acquired the forged visa from an Italian, Bovero Franco – who had also come to Pakistan to then reach the training camp in Afghanistan – while in Turkey. His testimony led to the raiding of a flat in Pakistan where they found forged Italian documents as well as forged Afghani documents likely made in Italy. A passport stolen from a Neapolitan – Naples being an area were other members of Fezzani’s network were particularly active – stock was also found in the operation. This led to the discovery of a network to host and accompany radicalised individuals coming to Pakistan to reach a Quranic school and then the training camp in Afghanistan.
The following arrest by Italian authorities, in June 1998, of Bovero Franco and his subsequent testimony revealed that Fezzani had in fact accompanied him to the airport in Italy when Bovero had to leave for Pakistan.
A parallel investigation by the Prosecutor’s Office of Milan further discovered that Fezzani was a “usual occupant” of an apartment in the city where he lived with many other foreigners. Among them, there was also Chaouachi Abdelaziz, another member of Fezzani’s cell, and Aouni Bachir. Aouni Bachir is particularly important as he was the leader of the GIA in Germany, and was found to be receiving operational instructions from the GIA military leadership in Algeria. In addition to that, intercepted conversations inside the flat revealed the occupants openly talked about bombmaking techniques, and weapon storage, and also praised a deadly terrorist attack in Algeria. Italian authorities also believed the group might have been planning an attack during the football World Cup that was taking place in France in 1998.
As part of two separate investigations, the Tribunal of Bologna requested Fezzani’s arrest in March 2000.

Open sources stress that Fezzani was held in U.S. custody between 2001 and 2009. In December 2009, he was transferred to Italian custody and, in 2012, extradited to his home country of Tunisia. There, he reportedly joined the domestic militant group Ansar al-Sharia Tunisia. He traveled to Syria in 2013, where he reportedly joined the Nusra Front, and later ISIS.

On February 8, 2016, the Tunisian Ministry of the Interior issued an arrest warrant for Fezzani, claiming he was involved in planning two separate attacks in Tunisia in March and June of 2015. In the first attack, on March 18, 2015, ISIS gunmen stormed the Bardo Museum in Tunis, killing 21 foreign tourists and a Tunisian. On June 26, 2015, ISIS gunman killed at least 38 individuals on a beach in Sousse.

Finally, in November 2016, the Italian external intelligence (AISE) reportedly located Fezzani in Khartoum and carried out a joint operation with the Sudanese authorities to capture him.76 He was arrested on November 14, 2016, and extradited to Tunisia along with his wife Hajar al-Kafi and their two sons on December 23, 2016.

https://www.counterextremism.com/extremists/moez-fezzani and https://ctc.westpoint.edu/the-relentless-terrorist-a-profile-of-muaz-al-fizani/