Belgian-Moroccan Jihadist Recruiter Malika El Aroud Dies at 64

Malika El Aroud had been found guilty of having organized, with her husband Moez Garsallaoui, a pipeline for sending jihadist fighters from Belgium to Afghanistan. She had also been previously married to another jihadist, Dahmane Abd el-Sattar, who had been involved in the assassination of Commander Massoud in Afghanistan in 2001, two days before the September 11 attacks in the United States.

On October 11, 2018, Malika El Aroud was arrested with a view to her expulsion and taken to the closed center in Bruges. Her lawyer had then filed a request for political asylum, citing the fact that his client would be exposed to torture or inhuman and degrading treatment if she was sent back to Morocco. This request had been rejected, as had an urgent procedure launched before the Aliens Litigation Council.

The Belgian-Moroccan woman was a controversial figure, considered a radical Islamist propagandist. She had also been accused of having collaborated with the perpetrators of the 2004 Madrid attacks. Her death was confirmed by her lawyer, Me Nicolas Cohen, who did not specify the causes of her death.