News On Jihadism In Portugal - Monitoring Jihadism Project

Open-source news on jihadism in Portugal

This section contains news from open sources on persons involved in jihadist activities or criminal activities satellite to jihadism in Portugal.

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23 February 2026
The Portuguese Islamic radical was in regular contact with the perpetrators of the attacks in the United Kingdom
Claudio ‘Abu Musa’ was talking to a Briton who had planned a terrorist attack in London, which was stopped in time by the police. He was also talking to other suspects from the United Kingdom.
The Portuguese Claudio “Abu Musa”, as he was known on social networks, had frequent contacts with Lewis L., a 25-year-old Briton who was preparing a terrorist attack, on Oxford Street, one of the busiest streets in London. This English citizen would be arrested in April 2018, before committing the attack, having confessed to the facts and sentenced the following year to a life sentence with a minimum mandatory term of 15 years for the crime of planning a terrorist attack and 7 years for the crime of financing terrorism.
Source: https://expresso.pt/justica/2026-02-23-radical-islamico-portugues-tinha-contactos-regulares-com-autores-de-atentados-no-reino-unido-1f1c03f8
13 February 2026
A Portuguese man, originally from Madeira, was charged with committing four terrorism crimes
A Portuguese national, originally from Madeira, has been charged by the Public Prosecutor’s Office with committing four counts of terrorism (two counts of inciting terrorism and two counts of glorifying terrorism).
According to a statement released by the Attorney General’s Office, the events took place in the Autonomous Region of Madeira in 2019 and 2020.
According to the investigation, led by the Central Department of Investigation and Criminal Action with the assistance of the National Counterterrorism Unit of the Judicial Police, it was indicated that, “between 2014 and 2016, while serving a sentence in prisons in the United Kingdom, the defendant became radicalized and converted to Salafist-jihadist Islam, and began to defend the ideology advocated by the Islamic State.”
In the United Kingdom, the defendant was sentenced to an additional penalty of expulsion and a ban on entry into that country for a period of 10 years, which will end in May 2026, and therefore returned to the island of Madeira in 2016.
In that location, the prosecution alleges, “he continued to defend the aforementioned radical ideology and maintain online contact with radical Islamic preachers.”
According to judicial authorities, “he made posts on social media where he publicly disseminated his ideology, glorifying radical preachers and motivating others to commit violent acts in obedience to the radical ideology he professes.”
The Attorney General’s Office recalls that the defendant has been subject, since 10-02-2026, to the following coercive measures: mandatory weekly reporting to the criminal police authority in the area of residence; prohibition from leaving the Autonomous Region of Madeira; prohibition from publishing Salafist-jihadist content online, on any platform; prohibition from consuming Salafist-jihadist content through access to said platforms or any other digital means; and prohibition from contacting, by any means, even through an intermediary, radical preachers or other radicalized individuals.
Source: https://www.dn.pt/sociedade/jihadismo-portugus-acusado-de-crimes-de-terrorismo
12 November 2025
Three terrorist organizations are operating in Portugal
The deputy of CHEGA, Francisco Gomes, said, in a parliamentary hearing as part of the discussion of the State Budget for 2026, that “there are already three terrorist organizations operating in Portugal”, demanding explanations from the Government about the alleged operation of these cells in the national territory.
According to Francisco Gomes, the organizations identified include Jamaat-e-Islami, which, he said, “has as its declared objective the implantation of Islam in all areas of society” and was “officially declared a terrorist organization” by several countries in 2024, for being involved in “murders of religious minorities, including especially Catholics”.
According to the deputy, the movement is led in Portugal by an individual who allegedly coordinates actions and protests against Christians in Europe. Jamaat-e-Islami is an organization that has links to the BNP (Bangladesh National Party), a party that tolerates, promotes and finances the actions of Islamic extremist movements, including within Bangladesh itself. BNP members are in Lisbon and were involved in an episode of violence that took place in Lisbon in January 2025. The BNP also has close ties to the Socialist Party and personally to Rana Taslim Uddin.
The second organization, he explained, is Dawat-e-Islami, led in Portugal by a man named Maulana Attari, which “is using the country to plan protests against Christians in Ireland, Greece and Sweden”, actions that are “reported on open social networks”. Francisco Gomes added that this organization “has as sisters the Palestinian Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood”.
The third organization, he continued, is the Khelafat Majlis, led in Portugal by a man identified as Ahmad Quader, whose leader, “at his installation in Lisbon, declared: there is no alternative but an Islamic state system based on the caliphate and the eradication of all other religions.”
According to the deputy, this movement “has as its sister organization Hizb ut-Tahrir, also declared a terrorist organization by the British government in January 2024”.
At the end of the speech, Francisco Gomes questioned the Government about whether it is aware of the existence and activities of these organizations and, if not, how does it explain the absence of reaction, taking into account the history of terrorist actions abroad by the same groups that, according to him, now operate in Portuguese territory. The deputy also asked if the State is willing to expel from the country the leaders of these organizations and all those who join them, considering that they represent “a clear threat to national security and stability”.
Source: https://folhanacional.pt/2025/11/12/ja-existem-tres-organizacoes-terroristas-a-operar-em-portugal/
13 July 2025
Portuguese terrorist sentenced to life imprisonment in Luxembourg
Portuguese terrorist Steven Duarte (son of Portuguese emigrants in Luxembourg) was sentenced to life imprisonment on Monday morning in a court in that central European country.
The trial of the Portuguese-Luxembourgish national was held in absentia, as it is believed that the accused has been imprisoned in a Syrian jail for several years.
Steven Duarte identified himself as a member of Daesh, using the name Abu Muhadjir Al Andalousi. He regretted it years later. When Daesh was dismantled in Syria and Iraq, the Portuguese-Luxembourgish national was arrested and remains in a Kurdish prison. He has already filed a request to return to Luxembourg, the country where he says he wants to serve his sentence.
Despite the defendant’s absence, the Public Prosecutor’s Office charged him with eight crimes, the most serious of which was terrorism. After nearly a month of trial, a court in the Luxembourg capital sentenced him to life imprisonment, the most severe penalty in that country’s penal code.
Source: https://www.cmjornal.pt/portugal/detalhe/terrorista-portugues-do-daesh-apanha-pena-perpetua-no-luxemburgo
13 June 2025
Portuguese suspected of joining the Islamic State received a subsidy of 900 euros
Before attacking a woman in Spain, Fábio J. warned an accomplice that he was going to do an act “in the name of Allah”. Homeless in Quinta do Conde, he was arrested by the PJ who discovered that he was receiving a disability allowance. He opposed extradition to Spain and is awaiting the Court’s decision.
The case went unnoticed in Portugal. On October 4 last year, Fábio J., a 32-year-old Portuguese man who lived on the street in Huelva, reportedly grabbed a screwdriver and tried to kill a woman while shouting “Allahu Akbar” – Allah is great. At the time, he was arrested by the Spanish authorities who, despite suspecting that he could be linked to some radical circles, ended up releasing him, awaiting the development of the process.
However, the results of the forensic analysis of Fábio J.’s cell phone allowed investigators to conclude that not only had the Portuguese premeditated the act, but the content of his online searches framed him as a suspect of “terrorist offenses”.
On June 5, the Spanish authorities sent a European Investigation Order to Portugal, under a process that is being carried out in the Central Court of Instruction No. 5 of the National Court of Madrid, requesting the arrest of Fábio J. In that investigation, the Portuguese is indicted for the crimes of “integration or collaboration with a terrorist organization” and “indoctrination or exaltation of a terrorist character”. crimes punishable by between 10 and 15 years in prison.
Taken the day after the presence of a judge at the Court of Appeal of Évora, Fábio J., represented by lawyer Francisco Sousa, who did not want to provide any clarification on the case to Nascer do SOL, opposed the extradition and also did not give up the principle of specialty, the legal precept that prevents him from being accused of crimes other than those mentioned in the EAW.
As far as Nascer do SOL has learned, the Court of Appeal of Évora gave lawyer Francisco Sousa a period of 10 days to file the opposition to the extradition. Only then will a decision be made. Until then, Fábio J. awaits the development of the process in preventive detention. (…)
Source: https://pt.euronews.com/my-europe/2025/06/13/portugues-suspeito-de-aderir-ao-estado-islamico-recebia-subsidio-de-900-euros
06 June 2025
Arrested on the south bank of the Portuguese Tagus wanted in Spain for terrorism
A 32-year-old Portuguese was arrested on the south bank of the Tagus. He was indicted by terrorist offences and joining a terrorist group in 2024, in the city of Huelva, Spain.
In a statement, the Judicial Police stated that the man had a European arrest warrant issued by the Spanish authorities, as part of an investigation carried out by the Guardia Civil following events that occurred in October 2024, in Huelva.
Source: https://www.publico.pt/2025/06/06/sociedade/noticia/detido-margem-sul-tejo-portugues-procurado-espanha-terrorismo-2135873

18 January 2024
Two former members of the Islamic State convicted
In a significant step toward accountability for international crimes, the Lisbon Court of Appeal in Portugal issued a historic conviction against two brothers, former members of the Islamic State (ISIS), Ammar Ameen and Yaser Ameen, for their involvement in terrorist activities and crimes committed in Iraq after ISIS’s 2014 offensive and the takeover of Mosul and other cities in Iraq and Syria.
Yaser Ameen and Ammar Ameen, aged 32 and 34 respectively, entered Portugal in March 2017 under the European Union refugee resettlement program, claiming asylum. In September 2021, they were arrested and placed in pre-trial detention on suspicion of belonging to a terrorist organization, in connection with their alleged roles in ISIS’s religious police (al-Hisbah) and intelligence services (al-Amniyah) in Iraq between 2014 and 2016.
On September 5, 2022, the Portuguese Prosecutor’s Office charged both men with a total of nine counts: eight for war crimes and one for membership in a terrorist organization.
Finally, on January 18, 2024, the Lisbon Court of Appeal sentenced Yaser Ameen to ten years in prison for membership in an international terrorist organization, as well as expulsion from Portugal for ten years. His brother, Ammar Ameen, faced additional charges of crimes against humanity for kidnapping and physically punishing an Iraqi citizen in a public square in Mosul, and for resistance and coercion against an officer. Ammar was sentenced to sixteen years in prison, also for membership in an international terrorist organization, for committing a war crime, and for aggravated threats. He was likewise sentenced to expulsion from Portugal for ten years.
Subsequently, the Portuguese Prosecutor’s Office appealed the judgment, arguing that there was sufficient evidence to prove both defendants had committed war crimes and that the sentences imposed were disproportionately lenient given the gravity of the acts. In May 2024, the brothers also filed an appeal against their convictions.
Sources: https://fibgar.es/en/portugal-issues-historic-ruling-against-two-former-isis-members-with-unitad-support/ and https://ctc.westpoint.edu/crime-and-punishment-how-international-cooperation-led-to-the-landmark-conviction-of-two-islamic-state-brothers-in-portugal/
22 April 2023
Wanted for terrorism in India kidnapped and beaten in Portugal
The Public Prosecutor’s Office (MP) has confirmed the suspicions against an alleged terrorist wanted in India who has also committed crimes in Portugal. Iqbal Singh was charged this week, along with four other defendants, with crimes of kidnapping, robbery and offense to qualified physical integrity, which were allegedly committed in August last year against another Hindustani citizen in Odivelas.
Singh, a native of India, who is believed to belong to an Islamist Pakistani insurgent organization that wants to conquer Kashmir, has allegedly committed serious crimes in his country and had been arrested by the Judiciary Police last October, along with three other defendants, and all are in pre-trial detention.
This suspect, wanted in India for terrorism, criminal association and heroin trafficking, had already been arrested before, in 2020, when he was trying to obtain a residence permit and the authorities found the existence of an international arrest warrant.
The case was revealed by CNN Portugal, which also said that Iqbal had been subject to preventive detention awaiting the decision of the Court of Appeal (which decides on extradition requests).
The Indian authorities also requested extradition with “the sovereign and irrevocable guarantee” that the defendant would not be subject to a sentence of more than 25 years, the limit provided for by our Penal Code (Portugal does not extradite to countries with the death penalty or life imprisonment, as is the case of India). However, the judges decided to dismiss it and Iqbal would eventually be released in October 2021.
Less than a year later, in August 2022, according to the MP’s description, he was contacted by relatives of the victim’s wife (NS) in this case, unhappy with the couple’s separation that had occurred a few weeks ago. Wanting to take revenge on the man, they asked Iqbal to assault him and force him to pay about 45 thousand euros.
Iqbal had the help of other countrymen and used as “bait” to lure NS a woman, also of Hindustani origin, who convinced him to help her in a supposed change of residence from Lisbon to Torres Vedras.
On August 26, at the Senhor Roubado metro station, Odivelas, where he had arranged to meet his wife, he received a new phone call from her indicating a nearby apartment to which he should go.
But when NS arrived at the door of the building, he was “suddenly and abruptly approached by three or four individuals”, according to his testimony, also Hindustani.
According to the accusation brought by the Department of Investigation and Criminal Action (DIAP) of Lisbon, “while two of them grabbed his hands”, the others “punched him numerous times in the back, in the head and pushed him to the first floor, forcing him to enter the apartment there”.
In that place, it is pointed out, were other defendants, including Iqbal, who continued with the aggressions “for about 20 minutes”, with “numerous punches, slaps, kicks and elbows, for various parts of the body” and, at a certain point, laying him on the ground and continuing “to slap, kick and punch him”.
While the assaults were taking place, the MP maintains, Iqbal used the victim’s cell phone to make a video call to India and spoke with the brother-in-law and father-in-law of the offended who told him: “Hit him more”. One of those present took the belt out of NS’s pants and used it to hit him in the back and head. “We’re going to throw you off a bridge,” one of them reportedly said, also questioning him why he had left his wife. Then they took off his pants and underwear and one of the defendants “struck about 10 blows in the genital area”.
It was, according to the prosecution, Iqbal Singh who told NS that he would have to pay the 45 thousand euros to be delivered to the woman’s family in India, otherwise they would kill him. They also forced him to “touch his nose on the ground, as a form of subjugation before them, a moment recorded on video”. This kidnapping and aggressions lasted until about 01.30 in the morning of the 27th, and NS was taken and abandoned near the Campo Grande garden.
He asked for help from a Bolt courier who lent him his cell phone to ask for help from relatives, and a friend went to him, then transported him to the Santa Maria hospital. “The injured party suffered painful phenomena on the head and face, on the back, exuberant hematoma of the pinna sparing the lobe, ecchymosis, abrasions and edema, on the head, face, neck, chest and right lower limb”.
The investigation by the DIAP of Lisbon and assisted by the National Counterterrorism Unit of the Judiciary Police identified five suspects, including Iqbal Singh, who was accused.
All have been in pre-trial detention since they were detained by the PJ. It is the MP’s understanding that the assumptions of the defendants’ preventive detention are not changed and that they must wait for the outcome of the process in jail.
Source: https://www.dn.pt/arquivo/diario-de-noticias/procurado-por-terrorismo-na-india-raptou-e-espancou-em-portugal-16215603.html#google_vignette
19 October 2022
Terrorist suspect released in Lisbon ends up captured for kidnapping
The name of Iqbal Singh, known as “Shera”, is considered in India synonymous with terror – due to its association with Pakistan’s largest Islamist insurgent group that aims to conquer the Kashmir region. He is responsible in his country for terrorism, criminal association and heroin trafficking, but, caught in Loures in July last year, he was released by the Court of Appeal three months later. He had been free for a year in greater Lisbon, until this Tuesday night he was arrested by the Judiciary Police, with three accomplices, for the violent kidnapping of a man with ransom demand, CNN learned.
The investigation is by the PJ’s National Counterterrorism Unit, which has never lost track of Iqbal Singh. Wanted in India, with an international arrest warrant, he was detected in Loures when he applied for a residence permit using a false passport. He was eventually identified, detained and in pre-trial detention awaiting a decision from the Court of Appeal, which arrived in October 2021: Portugal would not extradite him, as India did not give guarantees considered sufficient that the suspect would not be subject to the death penalty or life imprisonment.
As soon as they learned of Iqbal’s capture, the Indian authorities immediately requested extradition with “the sovereign and irrevocable guarantee” that the defendant would not be subject to a sentence of more than 25 years, the limit provided for by the Penal Code of Portugal. But the judges did not believe it, despite the assurances coming from the local Minister of the Interior himself. In the judgment that led to the release of the suspect, they even recalled the case of Abu Salem, an Indian terrorist who in 2004 Portugal agreed to extradite and ended up serving a life sentence in his country.
What is certain is that Iqbar Singh was released, waiting for the Indian justice to eventually transfer the case to Portugal, so that it can be tried in Lisbon, but for a year he had enjoyed full freedom. Recently, he received a contact from India asking him to kidnap a man of the same nationality who had decided to divorce.
The victim was ambushed by Iqbar and accomplices and brutally assaulted with a ransom demand of around 5 thousand euros. They were all identified and detained by the PJ on Tuesday night. They will be present in court and risk preventive detention.
Source: https://cnnportugal.iol.pt/terrorismo/iqbal-singh/suspeito-de-terrorismo-libertado-em-lisboa-acaba-capturado-por-rapto/20221019/634fe7300cf2ea4f0a621292
30 August 2022
PJ captured terrorist on arrival in Lisbon
The Judicial Police captured a man with links to the Islamic State. This is a Portuguese-Guinean named Cássimo Turé, who had already been sentenced to eight and a half years in prison and who was captured upon arrival in Lisbon.
Source: https://www.rtp.pt/noticias/mundo/pj-capturou-terrorista-a-chegada-a-lisboa_v1429723
16 July 2022
The Attorney General’s Office will submit an extradition request to Iraq for Portuguese jihadist
Nero Saraiva was, for years, considered one of the most dangerous and wanted jihadists in the world. Nero Saraiva is imprisoned in Iraq, but the extradition request prepared by the Attorney General’s Office is ongoing. Prova dos Fatos reached the conversation with Nero Saraiva’s family and with whom he met one of the Portuguese terrorist’s several wives. A week ago, RTP broke the news that Nero Saraiva was sentenced for terrorism to 15 years in prison.
Source: https://www.rtp.pt/noticias/pais/jihadista-portugues-procuradoria-geral-da-republica-vai-apresentar-pedido-de-extradicao-ao-iraque_v1420142
23 June 2022
Jihadist will be extradited to Portugal against the government’s will
For two years, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs omitted information from the Attorney General’s Office about the detention of Nero Saraiva in Iraq and gave incorrect data to the Iraqi embassy in Lisbon. After a series of questions from Sábado, Lucília Gago’s office reveals that it will move forward with the extradition request of the Portuguese terrorist, who is on trial and faces the death penalty, against the policy defined by the Government. The President of the Republic says that national citizens detained in camps in Syria who want to return to Portugal must have adequate support from the State
The Attorney General’s Office (PGR) is organizing the extradition request of the Portuguese terrorist of the Islamic State, Nero Saraiva, detained for two years in Iraq. The information was given to Sábado by Lucília Gago’s office in response to a set of 10 questions related to the situation of the Portuguese jihadist and how the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MNE) omitted information to the PGR and the Iraqi embassy itself in the last two years, in an attempt to avoid compliance with the International Arrest Warrant (MDI) issued by the Public Prosecutor’s Office (MP).
Source: https://www.sabado.pt/portugal/detalhe/jihadista-sera-extraditado-para-portugal
22 May 2022
Islamic State terrorist "on the way" to Portugal
The MFA was notified by the Iraqi Government that Nero Saraiva was arrested under an international arrest warrant. The objective is extradition.
In recent weeks, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) was notified by the Iraqi authorities that Nero Saraiva was arrested under an International Arrest Warrant issued in 2014 by the Central Department of Investigation and Criminal Action (DCIAP). This is the first step in a process that will culminate in the extradition of the most dangerous Portuguese jihadist from the Islamic State group to Portugal, where he awaits trial for the crimes of membership, financing and recruitment to a terrorist organization.
Source: https://www.sabado.pt/portugal/detalhe/terrorista-do-estado-islamico-a-caminho-de-portugal
02 September 2021
PJ arrests two ISIS militants who had been living in Portugal for four years
The PJ arrested two Iraqis suspected of belonging to Daesh in Mosul. They arrived in Portugal in 2017, infiltrated in a group of refugees who came from Greece. Wanted in Iraq
The National Counterterrorism Unit of the Judiciary Police (PJ) detained two Iraqi citizens in Lisbon this Wednesday. The two men, both in their thirties, brothers, had been in Portugal for four years and one of them worked in a call center and restaurants. According to a judicial source, they arrived in Portugal infiltrated a group of refugees who came from Greece.
In an official statement, the PJ said that the two detainees are suspected of “committing crimes of membership and support for an international terrorist organization, international terrorism, and against humanity”.
Also according to the same source, the suspects lived in Mosul, the bastion of Daesh in Iraq, and were militants of this radical Islamic group.
According to the PJ statement, searches were carried out in the Lisbon region, and evidence was collected that “indicates that these two individuals assumed different positions in the structure of ISIS / Da’esh”. But, according to the PJ, “no evidence was identified that they had committed any crimes of this nature in national territory”.
The two suspects are in custody and awaiting questioning. Iraq has issued an arrest warrant for these two suspects, but as it is a country that applies the death penalty, it is not clear that Portugal will extradite them.
The investigation began four years ago when the PJ collected evidence that was later validated “in the context of international cooperation”.
The operation was carried out in collaboration with the Foreigners and Borders Service (SEF) and the Iraqi judicial authorities.
Source: https://expresso.pt/sociedade/2021-09-02-PJ-detem-dois-militantes-do-Daesh-que-viviam-em-Portugal-ha-quatro-anos-03369f9c
15 December 2020
Two accused of links to jihadism sentenced to nine and eight and a half years
The Lisbon Criminal Court sentenced this Tuesday Rómulo Costa and Cassimo Turé to effective prison sentences of nine years and eight years and six months, respectively, for crimes of support to terrorist organizations linked to Islamic radicalism.
Both defendants were convicted of supporting, aiding and abetting Islamic terrorism, “in apparent concurrence with the crime of financing terrorism”.
The court acquitted them, however, of the crimes of joining and recruiting militants to terrorist organizations.
The judgment found that Cassimo Turé and Rómulo Costa “were aware of the political-military situation in Syria, and were also aware of the extremist political-religious convictions of Nero Saraiva, Sadjo Turé (Cassimo’s brother), Edgar Costa and Celso Costa (Rómulo’s brothers), Fábio Poças and Sandro Marques, as well as their intentions, in an organized manner, through a group they formed in the United Kingdom (London), to join terrorist organizations”.
Such organizations – said the collective court presided over by Francisco Coimbra – were namely ISIL and ISIS, the Emigrant Brigade and then the Islamic State (IS), and these friends and brothers of the defendants “became members” of these movements “internationally recognized by the United Nations (UN) and European Union (EU) as terrorists”.
Source: https://expresso.pt/sociedade/2020-12-15-Portugueses-acusados-de-ligacoes-ao-jiadismo-condenados-a-penas-de-prisao-de-nove-e-oito-anos-e-meio
21 March 2020
Eight Portuguese accused of belonging to terrorist cell go on trial
Judge Carlos Alexandre rejected the argument of one of the accused, who has been in preventive detention since last June. Defence criticizes decision that he says “shames Portuguese Justice”.
The eight Portuguese who were accused last December of three crimes linked to terrorism for having been part of a cell that started in the United Kingdom and became part of the Islamic State will be tried by a panel of judges in Portugal for joining and supporting a terrorist organization, recruitment for this type of body and financing these entities. The decision of Judge Carlos Alexandre, of the Central Court of Criminal Instruction (TCIC), dated last Tuesday, validates the accusation of the Public Prosecutor’s Office.
Source: https://www.publico.pt/2020/03/21/sociedade/noticia/oito-portugueses-acusados-pertencer-celula-terrorista-vao-julgamento-1908887
17 December 2019
Eight charged with membership and support for a terrorist organization
The Public Prosecutor’s Office of the Central Department of Investigation and Criminal Action has brought charges against eight defendants for the crimes of joining and supporting a terrorist organization, recruitment to a terrorist organization and financing terrorism.
The investigation investigated the activity of a group of citizens of Portuguese nationality, converted to Islam and who became radicalized, becoming part of the Islamic terrorist organization self-styled Islamic State (IS).
The process was initiated in 2013, following information from the British Authorities, in which it was noted that Portuguese citizens were involved in the kidnapping of two journalists, a British, John Cantlie, and a Dutchman, Jeroen Oerlemens, which took place in Syria in July 2012.
Through systematic research over six years, it was possible to describe and reconstruct, from a criminal, but also historical and sociological point of view, the organized radicalization of this group of individuals of Portuguese nationality and their relocation to Syria, with their wives and children, in order to join the ranks of the Islamic State and carry out Jihad. Two of the accused defendants were found and interrogated in Portugal, already during the current year of 2019, one of them being in preventive detention. The rest, whose interrogation could not be carried out, are in uncertain whereabouts, with only the information that one of them is imprisoned in Syria. The Public Prosecutor’s Office delegated the competence for the investigation to the PJ-UNCT.
Source: https://dciap.ministeriopublico.pt/destaque/adesao-e-apoio-organizacao-terrorista-recrutamento-para-organizacao-terrorista
23 March 2018
Moroccan who lived in Aveiro accused of terrorism on suspicion of links to ISIS
MP brought charges against a man who is in preventive detention in the Monsanto high security prison. Abdessalam Tazi was charged with one crime of membership of an international terrorist organization, one crime of forgery with a view to terrorism, four crimes of using a false document for the purpose of financing terrorism, one crime of recruitment for terrorism and one crime of terrorist financing. The 64-year-old Moroccan, who has been held in preventive detention at the Monsanto high security prison in Lisbon since March last year, is suspected of being a Daesh operative.
The Attorney General’s Office reveals that it traveled to Portugal, having recruited young Moroccans at the Portuguese Refugee Center in Aveiro. “It will have, in particular, recruited a citizen who was then arrested in France for the attempted terrorist attack in that country”. This is Hicham El Hanafi, who lived with Tazi in an apartment in that city.
In Portugal, Abdessalam Tazi would be the leader of the radicalization cell that operated between 2014 and 2016, with a center in Lisbon, headquarters in Aveiro and connections to Germany, Belgium, England, France and Daesh. However, “sufficient evidence was never collected to detain him in Portuguese territory”, adds an official source. Also according to the prosecution, the defendant will also, through the use of fake credit cards, have obtained funds with the aim of financing activities related to terrorism and that would be carried out by young people radicalized by him.
Tazi was denounced by three young Moroccans he tried to recruit for the terrorist organization. In a letter sent to Expresso at the end of last year, the Moroccan complained that he was reported to the Portuguese authorities by three Moroccan citizens, one of them older brother of Hicham El Hanafi. And he denied that he was a terrorist.
The Moroccan was arrested in Germany in the early summer of 2016, accused of fraud. After serving his sentence, he was extradited to Portugal and was remanded in custody in Monsanto.
Source: https://expresso.pt/sociedade/2018-03-23-Marroquino-que-vivia-em-Aveiro-acusado-de-terrorismo-por-suspeitas-de-ligacao-ao-Daesh
23 November 2016
Terrorism suspect received subsidy
The alleged terrorist who lived in Aveiro was placed by Social Security in a temporary shelter, where he resided for more than six months with a subsidy paid by the Portuguese State. After leaving the institution, the Moroccan citizen detained in France, continued to live in the region, in a rented room.
Hicham el Hafani applied for political asylum, having entered Portugal in October 2013. A refugee, with no established profession, he was welcomed at the Cesda Foundation, in Aveiro, with a subsidy for small expenses, around 200 euros, paid by the State.
After having achieved a certain autonomy with the support of Social Security, the man arrested in France, suspected of planning an attack, will have rented a room in the region with a friend who is also a refugee, according to Jornal de Noticias.
The suspected Islamic State man traveled frequently and reportedly kept a low profile.
Source: https://sicnoticias.pt/pais/2016-11-23-Suspeito-de-terrorismo-recebeu-subsidio
31 January 2015
Portuguese cell helped British jihadists to fly to Syria via Lisbon
The plane ticket to Lisbon was hardly going to raise suspicions. Whether at London’s Heathrow or Gatwick airports, they mingled in with the dozens of British youths flying off to the Portuguese capital on direct, low cost flights. They travelled alone and with just a bag of clothes with them. However, on arrival, rather than checking into some hostel, they were taken off to apartments in the city’s less salubrious suburbs, in Massamá, Monte Abraão and Mem-Martins, three locations in the Greater Lisbon region. There, they remained hidden away throughout various days and even for weeks.
Inside, they had everything that they needed – food and clean clothing – in order to cut to a minimum the number of trips made outdoors. The ideal would be to leave but once, with another plane ticket in their hands, setting off for Lisbon’s Portela airport to catch the morning flight to Turkey. Destination: Istanbul. From there, a road trip south covering the several thousand kilometres to its southern border where somebody from the Jihadist army would be awaiting them to whisk them over and guarantee their integration in Syria, the country where they would become warriors in the name of Allah. Throughout at least several months, between the end of 2012 and mid-2013, this was the route used by at least ten British jihadists to avoid secret service surveillance in the United Kingdom and to thus secretly enlist themselves in the pro-Al-Qaeda factions, which formed the precursor to Islamic State (IS), that were then fighting the Bashar al-Assad regime.
In command of this jihadist cell was a group of five Portuguese emigrants living in Leyton, an East London neighbourhood: Celso and Edgar Costa, Fábio Poças, Nero Saraiva and Sandro Monteiro. Before they themselves set off on Jihad, they first managed the recruitment, transport, accommodation, supply and financing of this terrorist route to Syria.
Firstly, in the suburbs of London, they sought out potential mujahedin in the Islamic circles in which they moved and preferably converts such as themselves and followers of more radical versions of Islam. Afterwards, they set off for Lisbon where they would host the future jihadists while in transit. “They would go and fetch them, one at a time, from the airport and take them off to the safe houses. They constantly accompanied their visitors and they, days or weeks later, would be taken to Portela to get the direct flight to Turkey. They only ever left the airport after the plane had taken off”, revealed a source at the European information services.
Source: https://expresso.pt/sociedade/portuguese-cell-helped-british-jihadists-to-fly-to-syria-via-lisbon=f908874
07 November 2007
Algerian arrested in Porto for terrorism
Samir Boussaha, a 35-year-old Algerian, was arrested yesterday in Porto by the PJ on suspicion of terrorism, as part of an operation originating in Italy and extending to the United Kingdom, France and Portugal, in a total of 16 detainees. It would recruit Muslims for training camps in Afghanistan and Iraq and be part of a terrorist network based in Italy. The individual lived in an apartment on Rua Alexandre Herculano, in the center of Porto. In the neighbourhood it was defined as peaceful and generally associated with the Renault 19 Chamade, in deplorable conditions, which had been parked for a long time in the same place: in front of the building where he lived.
It was quite rare for Samir, defined by the Italian authorities as an Islamic radical, to walk alone in Porto. According to a neighbour, who requested anonymity, the Algerian “used to arrive accompanied by two or three other friends and they would gather in the apartment. But they behaved perfectly normally”, he reveals, also confirming that Samir’s main brand was the vehicle, registered in his own name, but without inspection since February 2007 and with signs of evident abandonment. The normality and peacefulness repeated over and over again by the various neighbours heard by the CM were reflected in Samir Boussaha’s daily life. For about three years on national soil, he had owned a barbershop for 14 months – which he decorated with FC Porto items – where he worked with another employee, also a foreigner. The establishment is located on Rua de Cimo da Vila, at the back of the PSP Command, and it was on this street, with several immigrant shops, that the CM tried to talk to Samir’s employee. The evident malaise among the various shopkeepers was confirmed already in the barbershop, where the journalists ended up being poorly received.
In addition to the shop that supported him, Samir Boussaha also had a family with whom he lived. His partner, about 30 years old and also a foreigner, and a daughter, almost three years old, born in Portugal. The “this” is the arrest of Samir, suspected of involvement in a terrorist network based in Italy. Despite the seriousness of the accusations, the first witness heard by the CM reveals a lot of pragmatism. “Nothing surprises me. Just a few months ago they reported that several terrorists had entered Portugal, so anything is possible,” he concluded.
Source: https://www.cmjornal.pt/mundo/detalhe/argelino-preso-no-porto-por-terrorismo
June 2004
In June 2004, just before the beginning of the Euro Cup – held in Portugal that year –, the Portuguese media reported that 11 men of Maghrebi origin had been deported to the Netherlands. Despite the fact that the arrest involved more than 20 individuals, only three were considered to be of interest, among them Nouredine el-Fathmi and Mohammed el-Morabit, both Moroccan nationals. Nouredine el-Fathmi had lived in Amsterdam with Mohamed Bouyeri who, in November of that same year, had assassinated the film director Theo van Gogh.
At the time of the arrest in 2004 there was an established link between el-Fathmi and el-Morabit, who were arrested in a hostel in Oporto, and the Hofstad Group – a well-known Jihadist organisation in the Netherlands.
Among other material, the Dutch authorities had previously seized a declaration by Nouredine al-Fathmi in which he declared his intention of dying in the name of Allah. However, no evidence sufficient to ensure a conviction for terrorist activities was ever found in Portugal, and therefore he and the others were deported to the Netherlands where they were interrogated by the Dutch authorities and then released due to lack of evidence.
Nouredine el-Fathmi was again arrested in 2005, this time in Amsterdam on his way to Lelylaan Station while in the possession of firearms and ammunition. In January 2006 the Dutch public prosecutor claimed to have ample evidence that the Hofstad Group was indeed a Jihadist organisation, directed by a six-man council to which Mohamed Bouyeri and el-Fathmi belonged. In March 2006 el-Fathmi and Mohammed el-Morabit were sentenced by a Rotterdam court to five and two years’ imprisonment respectively. Bouyeri was also convicted at the trial for being the ringleader, although he was already serving a life sentence for the assassination of Theo van Gogh. Nouredine el-Fathmi was also implicated in what the Dutch intelligence called the ‘Piranha Network’, a group plotting to assassinate senior Dutch politicians and bomb a government building.
Source: https://www.realinstitutoelcano.org/en/analyses/jihadism-in-portugal-grasping-a-nebulous-reality-ari/
March 2003
In March 2003 a police operation carried out in Lisbon and Quarteira (in southern Portugal) lead to the arrest of 13 Algerians suspected of being involved in the forgery of documents. The identity of these men was never very clear, nor what their intentions were –a lack of information that would become habitual in future cases of possible Jihadist activities in Portugal–. Nonetheless, a name emerged from these arrests: Sofiane Laïb, a 25 year old Algerian national who was in Germany at the time of the arrests in Portugal.
With a record of petty crime –namely small-scale theft and the forgery of documents–, Laïb was party to a money transfer carried out by one of the 13 Algerians arrested. It has been reported that between 1998 and 2000 Laïb shared an apartment in Hamburg with Mohamed Atta, the leader of the cell responsible for the 11 September 2001 attacks in the US. Whatever the case, it has been confirmed that the young Algerian knew Atta and frequented the same religious and social circles in Hamburg. A few months after the arrest of the 13 Algerians in Portugal, Sofiane Laïb was arrested in downtown Lisbon in possession of forged documents, the sole crime for which he was convicted. After serving a short time in prison, Laïb was expelled to Algiers in April 2006 by the Portuguese authorities. One of his known associates was a Tunisian national called Ben Yamin Issak, alias Ben Youssef Boudhina, himself close to Atta in German Islamist circles.
Source: https://www.realinstitutoelcano.org/en/analyses/jihadism-in-portugal-grasping-a-nebulous-reality-ari/
September 2002
In September 2002 Ben Yamin Issak tried to board an airplane in Lisbon headed for London. He carried a false French passport which was detected by a steward at the boarding gate. The extremely poor quality of the documentation suggests that he was eager to get to the UK. Although detected, Ben Yamin Issak was able to leave the airport and later use false Portuguese ID to catch several buses until he arrived in London.
Sofiane Laïb was waiting in a car outside the airport in case something went wrong –as it did– and helped Issak evade capture. When he arrived in the UK, he stayed at Kamel Bourgass’s house in Wood Green, north London. Bourgass is an Algerian national who trained in Afghanistan and is suspected of having fought for the Algerian GIA (Groupe Islamique Armée –Islamic Armed Group–). While in the UK, Ben Yamin Issak and Bourgass attended the Finsbury Park mosque, then run by the notorious Imam Abu Hamza al-Masri. In January 2003 they managed to anticipate a police raid which found Jihadist propaganda, Issak’s false Portuguese ID and castor-oil beans (typically used to produce ricin toxin) in Bourgass’s house, thus foiling the well-known ‘London Ricin Plot’. Issak’s false ID had been stolen by Sofiane Laïb from an African staying at a hostel in Lisbon which is associated with illegal immigration and prostitution. Kamel Bourgass was captured a few days later in Manchester after stabbing five police officers with a knife, one of whom died. He is currently serving a life sentence and his arrest triggered a raid by the British authorities on the Finsbury Park mosque, where false documentation used to support Jihadist activities was found. On 12 July 2003 Ben Yamin Issak was arrested in Liverpool trying to board an airplane heading for Barcelona.
Source: https://www.realinstitutoelcano.org/en/analyses/jihadism-in-portugal-grasping-a-nebulous-reality-ari/

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