The court sentenced Bassam Ayachi on Friday May 13 for belonging to a Salafist group in Syria and recruiting fighters, reports Le Figaro. In order to reduce the required sentence (five years imprisonment, two of them unconditional), the court decided to “take into account” the fact that the imam had been an “informant” for the intelligence service, as “it cannot be excluded that he had provided real assistance to France”. On the other hand, “this circumstance does not make the offence disappear”. “French law does not provide any exemption for the police informant.
Bassam Ayachi, who is on trial for terrorist criminal organisation, is suspected of belonging to the Islamic nationalist group Ahrar Al-Sham and of ” plotting ” with Al-Nosra, an affiliate of Al-Qaeda. A video from 2015 shows him “entering Idlib like a warlord” and “giving orders” while “a banner of the Al-Nosra Front” can be seen in the background.
In his defence, the 75-year-old imam said he had joined Ahrar al-Sham as a ” camouflage ” and had joined forces with al-Nosra “to survive” in the country, which was then in the midst of war. Bassam Ayachi played a dual role. He provided the French and Belgian intelligence services with valuable information, “thus serving a dual function and not denying his jihadist involvement”, according to the National Anti-terrorism Prosecutor’s Office.
According to Belgian media reports, the man remains at liberty under conditions, as he is said to have already spent 13 months in pre-trial detention between 2018 and 2019.
