Abdelkader Belliraj
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Abdelkader Belliraj (born 1957, Nador) is a Moroccan-Belgian citizen who was found guilty in 2009 of arms smuggling and planning terrorist attacks in Morocco.
Alleged murders in 1988–1989
Belliraj allegedly committed a series of murders in 1986–1989, being paid $300 for three of them by Abu Nidal. Some of them were claimed in Beirut by the Soldiers of the Right. In the 1990s, Belliraj allegedly became involved with international criminal and terrorist networks, working as a "money man.". However, he recanted all these "confessions" later, through his attorney. He also stated in an open letter, written in August 2008 and published by the Belgian newspaper Le Soir, that they had been extorted under torture, a practice common in the Moroccan police system.
Belliraj's purported confessions included the murders of:
- July 28, 1988: Raoul Schouppe, 65, a grocer in Brussels and former warrant officer in the Belgian Air Force, who was locally known to be Jewish
- August 16, 1988: Marcel Bille, 53, allegedly because Bille was a client to Moroccan male prostitutes; he was killed with the same gun as Schouppe
- March 29, 1989: Abdullah al-Ahdal El Hasi, 36, imam and manager of the Islamic and cultural center of Brussels (then placed in charge by the Belgian authorities of Islam in Belgium, with an emphasis on the selection of Islamic teachers paid by the Belgian authorities; this so-called "Grand Mosque" was controlled by the Saudi-based Muslim World League)
- March 29, 1989: Salem Bahri, 48, El Hasi's assistant, allegedly for objecting to Ayatollah Khomeini's fatwa against Salman Rushdie
- June 20, 1989: Samir Gahez Rasoul, 24, a chauffeur for the Saudi Arabian ambassador to Belgium; he allegedly was a collateral victim of a shot aimed at a Saudi diplomat
- October 3, 1989: Joseph Wybran, 49, a Belgian immunologist and leader in the local Jewish community.
