(Jerusalem Post) The Belgian state has paid former al-Qaeda terrorist Nizar Trabelsi €350,000, allegedly in relation to his detention conditions and an “illegal” extradition to the US.
Trabelsi — formerly a Tunisian professional footballer — was arrested in September 2001 for his role in a planned attack on Belgium’s Kleine-Brogel Air Base, where US troops and weapons were stationed. Trabelsi was also found to have traveled to Afghanistan to meet Osama bin Laden. Additionally, he was suspected of plotting two other attacks: one on a US embassy in Paris — where he would have been the suicide bomber; and one on two US-bound airliners that he and a co-conspirator planned to blow up.
