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Reda Seyam (born 1959 or 1960), also known as Ghana Prakesh or Gnanavel (the one with two horns), was a German-Turkish Islamic militant and an official in the Islamic State (IS). He has been described as a 'veteran of jihad' and is the highest ranking German member of the Islamic State.
Background
editReda Seyam was born in 1959 or 1960 in Egypt. He joined the Bosnian mujahideen in 1994, fighting in the Bosnian War (1992–95). He later moved to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in 1998.
Seyam is suspected of playing a role in financing the 2002 Bali bombings. He was arrested in Indonesia and interrogated by the Central Intelligence Agency at a black site before being extradited to Germany in 2003, where he became an influential figure in the Salafi movement.[1][2]
Islamic State
editOn August 19, 2013, it was reported that Seyam was active in Syria. Presently he is said to be the "emir for education" in Nineveh Governorate, Iraq, where he is responsible for "education reform" in the region. He has appeared in a video titled "Education in the Shade of the Caliphate" and in pictures taken inside Mosul University. [3][4]
According to a study by Jean-Charles Brisard and Kevin Jacksom, he was at one point deputy to the Islamic State governor in Aleppo province in Syria.[5]
Family
editSeyam first married in 1988. His first wife left him and was placed in witness protection by the German government. He later remarried. Seyam has a son named Jihad. The Berlin Interior Minister, Ehrhart Körting made a complaint against him naming his son Jihad but on September 2, 2009 the Court of Appeal ruled that this was a common name in the Arab world and was, therefore, permissible.[6][7]
References
edit- ^ "Google Translate". Translate.googleusercontent.com. Retrieved 2016-07-27.
- ^ "IS-Fanatiker-aus-Berlin-soll-am-Leben-sein". Die Welt. 28 January 2015. Retrieved 2017-02-13.
- ^ Flade, Florian. "The Islamic State Threat to Germany Evidence from the Investigations". Archived from the original on 18 September 2016. Retrieved 27 July 2016.
- ^ "Google Translate". Translate.googleusercontent.com. Retrieved 2016-07-27.
- ^ Jean-Charles Brisard and Kévin Jackson. "Islamic State's External Operations and the French-Belgian Nexus" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-11-11. Retrieved 2016-11-11.
- ^ "Google Translate". Translate.googleusercontent.com. Retrieved 2016-07-27.
- ^ "Google Translate". Translate.googleusercontent.com. 2007-03-03. Retrieved 2016-07-27.