Arrested terrorist, Meraghni El Hadj Ali, called “Akil,” confessed his involvement, via social networks, in planning terrorist operations in Algeria, considering that he was among the people who were deceived by organizations that “used the slogan of jihad.”
In confessions broadcast by Algerian television, today, Tuesday, the arrested terrorist, who had previously been active within a terrorist group in Syria, spoke about the details of his contacts in early September 2022 with the “Caliphate of West Africa Group” affiliated with the “Islamic State” organization, after he pledged allegiance in a video he sent to the officials of the organization to show them the plans of the new terrorist group, such as attacks on oil facilities in the south, as well as targeting high officials of the state.
He added that after obtaining the approval, he decided to start the “recruitment” and moved to Algiers, where he established contact with the so called Hamza Safsaf, who had previously been involved with him in smuggling a person pursued by security forces across the Libyan border. He said that he suggested to him to “carry out a terrorist act in the capital by assassinating senior figures through a sniper operation, with the aim of creating a great media effect.”
He stated that all these plans failed thanks to the vigilance of the competent security services, which arrested him after tracking his contact with a young man on Facebook in an attempt to recruit him.
The terrorist admitted that after years of practicing terrorist acts, he realized that these acts were “wrong and far from Sharia” and described them as “impulsiveness, ignorance and incitement by preachers and anonymous accounts on social media that introduce young people into suspicions and deceive them.”
In the end, he expressed his regret, asking for “pardon and atenuation,” and called on the youth “not to follow this path that leads to imprisonment, death, or despair.”
He also urged “the remnants of terrorism who were involved with terrorist groups to abandon armed action, return to the path of righteousness, and surrender themselves to security services.
