Zaied Bechir

Zaied Bechir was born in Enfida, Tunisia, on June 6, 1967. At the time of the investigation he was residing in Crema, in the province of Cremona. He was a member of a network of individuals that were primarily active in the forgery of documents, but also in the fencing of stolen vehicles, and in the funding and management of an extremist paramilitary training camp in Afghanistan. Among the network members some were directly linked with the Armed Islamic Group.
Zaied Bechir came under scrutiny by Italian authorities for his contacts with Abdaoui Youssef. The two had frequent calls in which Zaied would require forged documents from Abdaoui. A fax sent by Abdaoui to Zaied (and the following calls) on May 16 1998, containing the latter’s family status confirmed that Zaied, although legally residing in Italy, was seeking to have documents forged for himself. Other calls further confirm that Zaied was requesting to Abdaoui false documents for his acquaintances and migrants seeking to establish themselves in the country. During a call on April 3, Zaied also confirmed that he was hosting irregular migrants at his home.
Again during calls with Abdaoui, Zaied demonstrated to be close to the other foreigners in Crema who were conducting illicit activities, as the two, in February also commented on the arrest of some of their “brothers”.
On June 10 1998, raids conducted both at Zaied’s and Abdaoui’s flats, revealed some materials to forge documents and passport photos of Zaied. On January 20 1999 Zaied was arrested by Swiss police when found with forged Dutch documents as well as legitimate Dutch passport and driving license of an individual who had never denounced their loss.
Once established the criminal relevance of Zaied’s initiatives and those of his network, the Court of Bologna requested Zaied’s arrest in March of 2000.