Middle-east Arab News Opinion | Asharq Al-awsat

EU Amends List of Terrorist Individuals, Organizations | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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Nasir al Wahishi


Brussels-On 11 October 2016, the Security Council Committee pursuant to resolutions 1267 (1999), 1989 (2011) and 2253 (2015) concerning ISIS, al-Qaida and associated individuals, groups, undertakings and entities removed Yemeni national Nasir Abd al-Karim Abdullah al-Wahishi from the Sanctions List and enacted Malaysian Yazid Sufaat, also known as Joe, to the same list.

Sufaat was accused of being the founding member of Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) who worked for al-Qaida’s biological weapons program, provided support to those involved in al-Qaida’s 11 Sep. 2001 attacks in the United States and was involved in JI bombing operations.

He was detained in Malaysia from 2001 till 2008 and was later arrested in 2013 and sentenced to 7 years in Jan. 2016 for failing to report information relating to terrorist acts.

For his part, al-Wahishi, who claimed responsibility for massacre at French magazine Charlie Hebdo, was a citizen of Yemen and the leader of the Islamist militant group al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). Both Saudi Arabia and Yemen considered al-Wahishi to be among their most wanted fugitives.

In October 2014, the U.S. State Department increased the reward for any information leading to the capture or killing of al-Wahishi to U.S. $10 million.

In 2013, Al-Qaeda Emir Ayman al-Zawahiri appointed al-Wahishi as his deputy, speculating that he may be the next Emir of Al-Qaeda. He was killed in a U.S. drone strike in the Hadramaut Governorate of Yemen on 12 June 2015.

Moreover, he served as secretary to Osama bin Laden for years in Afghanistan. He left Afghanistan in 2001 and was soon arrested by Iranian authorities, who handed him over to his native Yemen two years later where he was imprisoned without charges.