Serai Khaled
Serai Khaled, born in Algeria on August 3, 1970, and residing at Via Bovaro 50, Trentola Ducenta (CE) was arrested in 2005 by the ROS unit of the Carabinieri in Brescia, under the orders of the Naples Prosecutor’s Office. Serai Khaled was sentenced on January 10, 2008, by the Court of Assizes of Naples to six years of imprisonment for association with the purpose of international terrorism and facilitating illegal immigration, a sentence that was later confirmed on October 27, 2009, by the Court of Assizes of Appeal of Naples. The charges include supporting the SGPC (Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat) and al-Qaeda, planning terrorist attacks, facilitating illegal immigration, producing false documents, fundraising, spreading propaganda, and preparing explosives or toxic substances. Serai Khaled was expelled from Italy and sent back to Algeria in 2010.
Serai Khaled was identified as a member networking with the “Salerno Group,” an autonomous cell linked to the SGPC, an Algerian terrorist organization founded in September 1998 after a split from the Armed Islamic Group (G.I.A.) led by Emir Hassan Hattab. The SGPC is known for its discipline and targeting of military and state representatives, avoiding indiscriminate attacks in urban areas, although civilians may be threatened by extortion and roadblocks. The group’s funding comes from contributions, extortion, property, commercial profits, and smuggling. European investigations revealed support for the SGPC from groups affiliated with Bin Laden, utilizing “sleeper” affiliates for missions in the West. Since 1998, the SGPC has established clandestine cells in Europe, with supporters in Belgium, Spain, Italy, France, and London. Arrests in Frankfurt, London, and Milan confirmed the group’s ties to al-Qaeda. Listed as a terrorist group by the EU and the UN, the SGPC became Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) in January 2007 after Hattab’s ousting in 2003.
Serai Khaled was specifically investigated for his involvement in providing false documents to association members and maintaining connections with other affiliates in Italy and other European countries. He was intercepted in conversations with Bouhrama, the coordinator of the Salerno cell and other areas in Italy, discussing going to Syria for “finding salvation,” a clear reference to jihad. Additionally, other interceptions revealed that Khaled feared arrest, and Bouhrama advised, in code, not to return to Italy.
An interception involving Achour Rabah revealed that the latter had brought people already involved in terrorist activities to the apartment – used by SGPC members – in Via Tavernelle 64 in Salerno, clearly referring to Serai Khaled and Bouhrama Yamine. Subsequently, in a conversation with Billal from Norway (where Serai Khaled seems to have lived with false documents obtained in France), Serai Khaled stated: “I’ll send them with Farouk’s package, who asked me to send him a suit… I’ll go down to Naples with Amine (Bouhrama Yamine) to buy him the suit…”. From the context, it is clear that “suit” refers to the documentation needed to regularize their presence in Italy.
In November 2003, the ROS launched an investigation called “Full Moon” into a group of Algerians living in the Naples area, deemed of “objective investigative interest,” particularly due to their close ties with Serai Khaled, considered a SGPC member. Serai Khaled was also found to have frequented Bouhrama Yamine in Vicenza, with whom he seems to have shared a residence for a period, and was a central figure in identifying members of the Salerno Group.
