Adlène Hicheur is a 34 year-old 'French-Algerian' physicist. He was working on the world's largest atom smasher: the Large Hadron Collider at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research near Geneva. A French court sentenced the Algerian-born nuclear physicist to five years in prison today for his role in plotting terrorism with al-Qa'ida.
Of course none of the news reports refer to the motive or ideology that inspired this nuclear physicist convicted of plotting terrorism with al-Qa'ida's north African wing. I previously wrote of the trial here. All the news reports refer to the nuclear jihadist as "Algerian" or "french Algerian." Yeah, right -- in this war on the West nationality is as relevant as the color of his pants. It's the ideology, stupid.
Allegedly plotted to kill French president Accused of planning to destroy oil refinery Bomb the air base at Karan Jefrier near Annecy in France
In one email to suspected Islamic terror chief Mustapha Debchi, Hicheur said he would 'propose possible objectives in Europe and particularly in France'.
He wrote in March 2009: 'Concerning the matter of objectives, they differ depending on the different results sought after the hits.
'For example: if it's about punishing the state because of its military activities in Muslim countries - Afghanistan - then it should be a purely military objective. For example: the air base at Karan Jefrier near Annecy in France. This base trains troops and sends them to Afghanistan.'
In June 2009, Debchi asked Hicheur: 'Don't beat around the bush: are you prepared to work in a unit becoming active in France?'
Hicheur replied: 'Concerning your proposal, the answer is of course yes but there are a few observations. If your proposal relates to a precise strategy - such as working in the heart of the main enemy's house and emptying its blood of strength - then I should revise the plan that I've prepared.' Read more: more at the Daily Mail
Ex-Cern nuclear physicist jailed for five years for terror plot The Independent (hat tip David)
A French court sentenced an Algerian-born nuclear physicist to five years in prison today for his role in plotting terrorism with al-Qa'ida's north African wing.
Adlene Hicheur, a former researcher at Switzerland's Cern laboratory, was convicted of "criminal association with a view to plotting terrorist attacks."
Hicheur, who has been behind bars since he was arrested in October 2009, could have received up to 10 years in prison.
The 35-year-old scientist and his defenders say he was a victim of allegedly overzealous
French anti-terrorism laws and that he explored ideas on jihadist websites but never took any concrete step toward terrorism.
Speaking after the judgment, Hicheur's lawyer called the verdict "scandalous."
Lawyer Patrick Baudouin said Hicheur hasn't decided whether to appeal the verdict. If he does not, with time off for good behavior, his client "should be out rather quickly," he added.
The case centered on about 35 emails between Hicheur and an alleged contact with al-Qai'da in the Islamic Maghreb named Mustapha Debchi, who tried to convince him to carry out a suicide bombing. Hicheur declined, but in one response suggested striking at the barracks of a battalion of elite Alpine troops in the eastern town of Cran-Gevrier.
Hicheur claimed he was on morphine for a herniated disk and going through a personal "zone of turbulence" when he wrote an 2009 email that advocated an attack on the barracks.
Prosecutor Guillaume Portenseigne rejected Hicheur's claims of a lack of lucidity and characterized the defendant as "a man who had everything going for him ... but just got led astray in a radical jihadist Islam."
At the two-day trial in March, the prosecutor called Hicheur "a budding terrorist" who only needed a "determining meeting" to slip into concrete action.
Hicheur's lawyer argued that "everything has been done to demonize" his client, "to make him into ... France's most dangerous terrorist, potentially susceptible to participate in a bombing."
Hicheur's defenders said recent terror attacks in France did not help his case.
In an apparently unrelated case in March, police say another young man of Algerian descent killed three Jewish schoolchildren, a rabbi and three paratroopers in the cities of Toulouse and Montauban and claimed ties to al-Qaida. Mohamed Merah, 23, died later in a shootout with police.
