Belgian-Born ISIS Fighter Deported from Turkey to Face Terror Charges

Mr. Akrich was transferred from Turkey to a Belgian prison on Tuesday, the federal prosecutor’s office confirmed. Earlier this year, the Belgian Official Gazette had published information about the withdrawal of his Belgian nationality. This deprivation had been pronounced following his default conviction in 2015 to five years in prison for his membership in the Sharia4Belgium group.

"I had appealed against this conviction and as there is no final criminal judgment, the deprivation of nationality has been suspended," explains Walter Damen, Fouad’s lawyer, to La Dernière Heure. "He was questioned and his appeal case can begin in early 2021," he said after meeting his client.

Leaving for Syria in 2012, Fouad will be arrested in 2019 in the company of his Dutch wife and their three children. Pending their transfer to the Netherlands, they are still in a return center.