Nizar Trabelsi

Nizar Trabelsi
Personal information
Full name Nizar ben Abdelaziz Trabelsi
Date of birth July 2, 1970
Place of birth Tunisia
Youth career
1999 - 2000 Wuppertal
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
2000 - 2001 Fortuna Düsseldorf 1 (1)
Total 2 (1)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.
† Appearances (Goals).

Nizar ben Abdelaziz Trabelsi (Arabic: نزار بن عبد العزيز الطرابلسي‎, born 2 July 1970) is a Tunisian and former professional football player. As a footballer, Trabelsi had joined and played both in Fortuna Düsseldorf and Wuppertal football clubs in Germany.[1] In 2003, he was convicted as terrorist and sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment for his association with Al-Qaida, and for plotting to attack US targets including American soldiers stationed at the Belgian airbase Kleine Brogel.[1]

Controversy

Trabelsi had traveled to Afghanistan and met Osama bin Laden on several occasions. In 2001, Trabelsi was suspected of planning the US embassy terrorist attack in Paris which was uncovered and stopped.[1] He is said to be the designated suicide bomber, and was to wear a business suit to conceal the strapped bomb onto himself before walking into the embassy.[2]

Trabelsi was arrested in an apartment, in Uccle near Brussels, Belgium on 13 September 2001. He was also implicated by Briton Saajid Badat, who alleged that both of them had conspired with Richard Reid supposedly to blow up two US-bound airliners using shoe bombs simultaneously.

Conviction

In 2003, Trabelsi was sentenced to a 10-year prison term in France.[1] He was also found guilty of illegal arms possession and being a member in a private militia.

References

  1. ^ a b c d BBC News (2007-12) Belgium frees jailbreak suspects, December 22, 2007.
  2. ^ CNN News (2001-10-26). Thwarting terror cells in Europe The CNN Website, retrieved April 21, 2008