Samir Bougana

Samir Bougana was born on June 21, 1994, in Gavardo (Brescia), Italy. An Italian citizen of Moroccan origin, he was registered with AIRE (Registry of Italians Residing Abroad) after relocating to Bielefeld, Germany, in 2012.
In November 2013, he travelled to Syria, specifically to the city of Latakia, where he joined terrorist organizations. According to Redur Khalil, the head of external relations for the Syrian Democratic Forces, Bougana had become radicalized in Germany in early 2012, influenced by the teachings of Imam Abu Hureyra Almani. He subsequently joined the armed brigade Junud al-Sham (Soldiers of the Levant).
Later, Bougana pledged allegiance to ISIS and became part of the Jaish al-Ulaya brigade. In an interview, he described himself as an ISIS soldier and claimed to have radicalized at the age of 19 through jihadist videos found online. He stated that upon arriving in Syria in 2013, he received military training from Chechen fighters within Junud al-Sham, learning to use Kalashnikov rifles and other weapons of war. This group was led by Chechen terrorist Abu Omar al-Shishani and included European recruits, mainly from Germany and France.
In 2014, after completing his training, Bougana moved to Raqqa. There, he officially enlisted with ISIS and waited about a month before receiving his first assignment: serving as an armed guard at a ribat, a military outpost positioned on the Islamic State’s borders for territorial control. For this role, he was provided accommodation and received a monthly salary of approximately €150, allegedly funded through oil smuggling operations.
Bougana admitted to participating in celebrations following terrorist attacks in Europe claimed by ISIS, and to spreading jihadist doctrine in mosques, advocating for violence against non-believers. He expressed remorse and a desire to return to Italy.
According to wiretapped phone conversations from June and July 2014 between Samir Bougana’s wife, her father, and her sister, several details emerged about the harsh conditions in the area where Bougana was located. His father stated that Bougana had been issued very old weapons, to the point where he was forced to repair one himself. He also reported a shortage of food, noting that a caliphate had been established within a camp and that the fighters received monthly rations worth approximately €100, along with basic food supplies such as rice and soups.
Tarik Suleyman Sherif, another fighter, claimed to have fought alongside Bougana in Syria and confirmed that he had joined the Junud al-Sham group. There, Bougana received weapons training and adopted the nom de guerre Abu Huraira. Sherif also stated that Bougana had shown a strong eagerness to fight. Both men reportedly waited several months to be deemed fit for combat, after which they were selected to join the fighting forces, also serving within the ranks of the Free Syrian Army.
On August 27, 2018, Samir Bougana was arrested near Raqqa by Kurdish YPG forces while attempting to return to Italy with his wife and children.
The following month, in September 2018, a 39-second video was published on YouTube in which Bougana confessed to having spent two to three years as a member of ISIS, operating under the war name Abu Abdullah. In the video, he expressed his intention to return to Italy with his family.
In 2019, a pre-trial detention order was issued by the Judge for Preliminary Investigations of the Brescia Court. Bougana was officially recognized as a foreign fighter, having assumed a defined operational role within ISIS, received a combat alias and a salary, and contributed to ideological indoctrination and recruitment activities, particularly within mosques. His actions were deemed to have provided a substantial contribution to the preservation and advancement of the terrorist organization’s objectives.
In July 2020, he was definitively convicted and sentenced to four years in prison for participation in a terrorist organization, following a fast-track trial.
In August 2020, the German police informed Italian authorities of a new testimony from a Yazidi refugee, who claimed that Bougana had been one of his captors in Syria in 2014. The victim alleged that Bougana had tied him up, beaten him with sticks and pipes, and tortured him with electric shocks while held in an ISIS-controlled detention facility.
Between 2022 and 2023, while incarcerated at Sassari Prison and approaching his release, Bougana was served with a second pre-trial detention order as part of a new criminal investigation linked to the Yazidi victim’s account. Later he was convicted by the Court of Brescia for aggravated kidnapping, and, in 2024, the Court of Appeal confirmed a 10-year prison sentence for aggravated kidnapping, with the crimes found to be motivated by racial hatred and terrorism. Although the offense of torture did not exist in Italian law at the time the acts were committed, the court concluded that Bougana’s conduct was substantively equivalent to torture.
The victim, only 14 years old at the time of the abuse, was deemed credible and reliable by the court. His emotional distress during testimony and consistent account of the violence supported the judges’ conclusions. The court noted that Bougana served as a silent executor of orders from his superiors within ISIS.