Touami Athmane

Touami Athmane, born in Algeria on 12/08/1985, is an irregular immigrant who successfully traveled within the Schengen zone, moving between the United Kingdom, France, Belgium, and Italy (where he was found homeless), using forged documents. Already investigated and convicted in the UK and France for common crimes, three months before the Paris attacks at the Bataclan, Touami Athmane was arrested on the Paris-Milan train on July 17th, 2015, and found to be carrying a false Belgian identity. Later, on 23.12.2018, the Nucleo Radiomobile of the Milan Provincial Command proceeded to the arrest of Touami Athmane (in that occasion he declared himself as Mahraz Tomi) for ”conspiracy to commit aggravated theft with dexterity in flagrante delicto”. The French police confirmed his real identity, specifying that he was flagged as a danger to the security of the French state by the Directorate General of Internal Security (DGS) due to his adherence to a radical Islamist movement, his capability of travelling to Syria/Iraq, and his involvement in the terrorist attacks in Paris in 2015. A validation of detention was made on 04.02.2021 with the application of the measure of pre-trial detention in prison for the offences under Articles 61 bis, 270 bis, paragraph 2 and paragraph 3, and the aggravating circumstance under Article 61 bis of the Criminal Code on his engagement within an organised criminal group involved in different states. On 17.3.2020 Touami was sentenced by the Judge for preliminary investigations of the Court of Bari to two years and eight months of imprisonment, as well as the security measure of deportation during the abridged trial.
Touami Athmane’s profile is closely linked to his brothers, Touami Mehdi and Touami Lyes. They have been involved in various property-related crimes such as ‘pickpocketing’ in the Brussels area, and Lyes has been directly involved in crimes related to Islamic terrorism by providing support to Islamic terrorist networks, especially in the field of document forgery and counterfeiting. Furthermore, in this context, there has been concurrent religious radicalization due to prolonged contact with known terrorist groups and key figures, including Zerkani Khalid, Amedy Coulibaly, Chérif Kouachi, Akrouh Chakib, Kriket Reda, Bouyahbaren Youssef, Benomari Rachid, and Abaaoud Abdel Hamid (the latter directly connected to Touami Athmane).
The main evidence against Touami Athmane originated from information provided by the Court of Appeal of Paris – Court of Sens, which declared him a professional involved in the illicit activity of producing and using counterfeit documents. In this regard, the police in Sens conducted a search at the residence of his brother Touami Mehdi in Sens, France, where a bag attributed by investigators to Athmane was found. It contained counterfeit documents and stolen authentic documents, including some related to the 2015 Bataclan attacks in Paris, two ultraviolet lamps, five hard drives with elements related to radical Islam, and seven cell phones. Furthermore, Belgian authorities in Brussels discovered a fake document bearing the image of Touami Athmane with different personal details, under the name Frederick Jacob, attributed to the ‘Catalogue’ network, the counterfeit document factory behind the terrorist and criminal cell. Athmane has also been in contact with individuals involved in terrorist attacks, including Abaaoud Abdel Hamid, Mohamed Abrini, Abdellah Chouaa, and Ahmed Dahmani, in various locations, including Paris and Brussels.
Touami Athmane’s religious profile is radically pro-jihadist, in line with the Salafist movement, especially the Muslim Brotherhood. There are ideological connections with a well-known Salafist Muslim scholar, Sulayman Ibn Naser Ibn Abd Allah Al-Alwan, sentenced in Saudi Arabia to a prison term of 15 years, on charges of sponsoring terrorism by raising money for al-Qaeda. Phone intercepts have revealed that Athmane’s extremist religious indoctrination took place in London at the ‘Finsbury Park’ mosque, notoriously associated with British jihadism. Another element of indoctrination was Imam Rajab, described by the Italian Security Agency as a member of the Muslim Brotherhood and a supporter of armed jihad as a solution to the Palestinian crisis. It can be reasonably assumed that Touami Athmane’s ideological and religious profile is certainly linked to the more radical faction of the ‘Muslim Brotherhood,’ the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS). This assumption was confirmed by a phone conversation intercepted in 2019, during which he mentioned the names of individuals linked to the FIS, and similar evidence has emerged from the analysis of his Facebook account (for example, connections with individuals sympathetic to the FIS and the sharing of radical pro-jihadist content, glorifying martyrdom in the name of Allah).
The investigations related to Touami Athmane have revealed a complex picture. During his detention in the Bari prison, it has come to light that Athmane had met various individuals with legal issues in various European countries, including Denmark, Spain, Italy, and France, such as ”El Nigro” and ”Said” (his brothers), and Al Minmouni Ismael, convicted in Belgium for his participation in an international terrorist organization after traveling to Syria and receiving money from Touami Lyes, who was also involved in the terrorist environment. Additionally, Athmane shared a cell in the Bari prison with Yaacoub Montassar, an individual involved in an investigation by the State Police of Latina. Montassar was suspected of providing support to Anis Amri, the perpetrator of the 2016 Berlin Christmas market attack. During intercepts between Athmane and Montassar, it emerged that Athmane had knowledge of key figures in Belgian terrorism, including Abdelhamid Abaaoud, a well-known leader of the Belgian terrorist cell, and the so-called “9 lions of the caliphate,” responsible for the 2015 attacks in France. Furthermore, it was discovered that a phone SIM card was provided to Athmane by Sifiri Adam, identified by French authorities as Mechkarini Fatah. The two had shared a period in the Lyon immigration detention center. Sifiri Adam was arrested in France for possession of counterfeit documents. Finally, a Spanish anti-terrorism operation in 2021 led to the arrest of three men of Algerian, Tunisian, and Libyan origin, accused of belonging to a terrorist organization in Algeria, “Jund al-Khilafah”. Investigations revealed indirect communications between these individuals and Touami Athmane, suggesting a connection between them. These investigations have contributed to outlining a scenario in which Athmane was in contact with several individuals involved in terrorism-related legal activities in various European countries, revealing his network of contacts within the international terrorist environment.
In summary, the joint investigation has identified Athmane as fully involved in a terrorist cell, in constant contact with its members and operational contacts, revolving around him and his brothers, who were linked to various jihadist figures and militants from international terrorist organizations, linked to the attacks carried out in France in 2015 at the Bataclan and in Belgium in 2016 at Brussels’ airport. Over the years, he has used counterfeit documents, relying on alternative identities to ensure easy mobility within the Schengen area, and has demonstrated that he is still in contact with the organization’s network, staying constantly informed about their movements and any arrests. Investigations have shown how jihadists from the ”Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat”, ”Al Qaeda in the Maghreb”, ”Al Shabaab”, and finally ”Isis/Daesh” have in fact used or been found in possession of forged documents provided to them by the Touami brothers. It is interesting to note that the support provided to terrorist organizations by the Touami brothers does not appear to be motivated solely by economic reasons but by their level of religious radicalization.