French Court Approves Extradition of Alleged Al-Qaeda Linked Moroccan Jihadist

Rachid Rafaa to be tried in Morocco, which he had left at the end of 2009? The Council of State has confirmed his extradition to the kingdom, reports Africaintelligence. The Moroccan authorities, who accuse him of having helped AQIM leaders disseminate their messages via the internet, had issued an international arrest warrant against him. He was arrested in 2009, then placed under house arrest on May 15, 2014 in the commune of Morne-Rouge (Martinique).

He was arrested again in October 2016 by the GIGN of Fort-de-France and the research section of the gendarmerie for not having respected his house arrest. "Rafaa was transferred on Sunday evening (October 16, 2016, editor’s note) in complete secrecy to a metropolitan prison. He will be detained in the prison of Metz in Moselle, after a short stay in a Parisian prison before arriving there," Patrick Louvounou, overseas delegate of the FO penitentiary union, said at the time.

After being presented the next day before an investigating judge, Rafaa had been "indicted for the facts of non-compliance with the house arrest of a foreigner subject to an expulsion order" and placed in pre-trial detention at the Ducos prison by the judge of freedoms and detention.