PARIS: A French extremist linked to the perpetrators of the 2015 massacre at satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo made a surprise admission Tuesday that he was involved in the 2011 kidnapping of three French aid workers in Yemen.
Peter Cherif, 42, also known as Abou Hamza, is being tried in Paris for terrorism-related offenses committed between 2011 and 2018, when he allegedly belonged to Yemen-based militant group Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).
Arrested in Djibouti in 2018, he had previously denied involvement in the kidnapping.
But on Tuesday he told the court that “I accept the facts, I was the translator” between his fellow French and their captors.
“I regret being involved in all this,” he said, claiming that he was not aware of the plot to kidnap the aid workers and that they were better treated because of his presence.
Even before his unexpected admission, prosecutors had established that he was in Yemen in May 2011 when the three aid workers from the Triangle Generation Humanitaire charity were abducted as they returned to their lodgings in the village of Seiyun.
They were released in November 2011 after spending their captivity in desert caves.
Amelie, one of the hostages, had already testified at the trial that she recognized Cherif as the translator with the captors, who spoke neither English nor French.
Cherif was linked to a Paris extremist cell and was named in the enquiry into the January 2015 attack on satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, due to his regular contact with the perpetrators, Said and Cherif Kouachi.
Twelve people were killed in the massacre that sent shock waves across France. The brothers died in a shootout with police two days later.
Investigating judges believe Cherif recruited the brothers into AQAP and had knowledge of the plan to carry out an attack in France.
According to several witnesses, AQAP advised foreign fighters in Yemen to return to their countries of origin to stage attacks.
In 2020, Cherif was called as a witness during a trial over the 2015 attacks and claimed to have had “nothing to do” with the massacre.
In 2004, Cherif left Paris to fight in Iraq and was captured by coalition forces in the ruins of Fallujah a few months later.
He escaped to Syria in 2007, eventually reporting to the French embassy in Damascus and was deported in early 2008.
He went on trial in early 2011, but before he was sentenced to five years in prison, he fled to Yemen where he joined AQAP.
He spent seven years there before traveling under a false identity with his wife and two children in 2018 to Djibouti, where he was arrested and handed over to France.
The trial is scheduled to last until early October.
French extremist admits role in kidnapping of aid workers in Yemen
https://arab.news/66a4m
French extremist admits role in kidnapping of aid workers in Yemen
- Amelie, one of the hostages, had already testified at the trial that she recognized Cherif as the translator with the captors
- Cherif was linked to a Paris extremist cell and was named in the enquiry into the January 2015 attack on satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo
Children dying from cold as storm batters Gaza, killing 13
- Three children die from exposure as winter rains flood displacement camps
- Wet weather causes war-damaged buildings and walls to collapse, killing 10
GAZA CITY: Gaza’s civil defense agency on Friday said at least 13 people had died in the last 24 hours, including three children who died from exposure to the cold, as a winter storm batters the territory.
Heavy rain from Storm Byron has flooded tents and temporary shelters across the Gaza Strip since late Wednesday, compounding the suffering of the territory’s residents, nearly all of whom were displaced during more than two years of war.
Gaza’s civil defense agency, which operates as a rescue force under Hamas authority, told AFP three children had died from exposure to the cold — two in Gaza City and one in Khan Yunis in the south.
Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City confirmed the deaths of Hadeel Al-Masri, aged nine, and Taim Al-Khawaja, who it said was just several months old.
Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis on Thursday said eight-month-old Rahaf Abu Jazar had died in the nearby tented encampment of Al-Mawasi due to the cold.
With most of Gaza’s buildings destroyed or damaged, thousands of tents and homemade shelters now line areas cleared of rubble.
Civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal said six people died when a house collapsed in the Bir Al-Naja area of the northern Gaza Strip.
Four others died when walls collapsed in multiple separate incidents, he said.
In a statement, the civil defense said its teams had responded to calls from “13 houses that collapsed due to heavy rains and strong winds, mostly in Gaza City and the north.”
Under gloomy skies in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip, Palestinians used bowls, buckets and hoes to try and remove the water that had pooled around their tents made of plastic sheeting.
Young children, some barefoot and others wearing open sandals, trudged and hopped through ponds of muddy water as the rain continued to fall.
“The mattress has been soaked since this morning, and the children slept in wet bedding last night,” Umm Muhammad Joudah told AFP.
“We don’t have any dry clothes to change into.”
Saif Ayman, a 17-year-old who was on crutches due to a leg injury, said his tent had also been submerged.
“In this tent we have no blankets. There are six of us sleeping on one mattress, and we cover ourselves with our clothes,” he said.
The Hamas-run interior and national security ministry gave a preliminary toll of 14 dead due to the effects of the winter rains since Wednesday.
A ceasefire between Israel and militant group Hamas that took effect in October has partially eased restrictions on goods and aid entering into the Gaza Strip.
But supplies have entered in insufficient quantities, according to the United Nations, and the humanitarian needs are still immense.
The UN’s World Health Organization warned on Friday that thousands of families were “sheltering in low-lying or debris-filled coastal areas with no drainage or protective barriers.”
“Winter conditions, combined with poor water and sanitation, are expected to drive a surge in acute respiratory infections,” it added.
