Christophe Caze (22 October 1969–29 March 1996) was a French terrorist and criminal, a former medical student in

Lille Lille (, ; ; ; ; ) is a city in the northern part of France, within French Flanders. Positioned along the Deûle river, near France's border with Belgium, it is the capital of the Hauts-de-France Regions of France, region, the Prefectures in F ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

. Caze was one of France's foremost

terrorist Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of violence against non-combatants to achieve political or ideological aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violence during peacetime or in the context of war aga ...

s. Caze was raised Catholic. A medical student, he travelled to Bosnia in 1992 to practice medicine, working at the

Zenica Zenica ( ; ) is a city in Bosnia and Herzegovina and an administrative and economic center of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina's Zenica-Doboj Canton. It is located in the Bosna (river), Bosna river valley, about north of Sarajevo. The ...

hospital. He converted into Islam and joined the

Bosnian mujahideen Bosnian mujahideen (), also called ''El Mudžahid'' (, ''mujāhid''), were foreign Muslim volunteers who fought on the Bosniaks, Bosnian Muslim side during the Bosnian War (1992–95). They first arrived in central Bosnia in the latter half of 19 ...

in the

Bosnian War The Bosnian War ( / Рат у Босни и Херцеговини) was an international armed conflict that took place in Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1992 and 1995. Following several earlier violent incid ...

, a unit that fought

Jihad ''Jihad'' (; ) is an Arabic word that means "exerting", "striving", or "struggling", particularly with a praiseworthy aim. In an Islamic context, it encompasses almost any effort to make personal and social life conform with God in Islam, God ...

against

Serbs The Serbs ( sr-Cyr, Срби, Srbi, ) are a South Slavs, South Slavic ethnic group native to Southeastern Europe who share a common Serbian Cultural heritage, ancestry, Culture of Serbia, culture, History of Serbia, history, and Serbian lan ...

. He became an extremist, and is reported to have played football with heads of decapitated Serbs.

Abu Hamza al-Masri Mustafa Kamel Mustafa (; born 15 April 1958), also known as Abu Hamza al-Masri (; , – literally, father of Hamza, the Egyptian), or simply Abu Hamza, is an Egyptian cleric who was the imam of Finsbury Park Mosque in London, where he preache ...

, who was a Bosnian mujahideen, was the religious guide of Christophe Caze. Another French convert was Lionel Dumont, who also joined the mujahideen. He returned to France a radical Islamist, and became the leader of a

GIA ''Gia'' is a 1998 American biographical drama television film about the life and times of one of the first supermodels, Gia Carangi. The film stars Angelina Jolie as Gia and Faye Dunaway as Wilhelmina Cooper, with Mercedes Ruehl and Elizab ...

group based in

Roubaix Roubaix ( , ; ; ; ) is a city in northern France, located in the Lille metropolitan area on the Belgian border. It is a historically mono-industrial Communes of France, commune in the Nord (French department), Nord Departments of France, depar ...

, the "

Gang de Roubaix Gang de Roubaix was a terrorist cell tied with the Islamist group Al-Qaeda. Its members were suspected of various bloody bank attacks, murder and a missed car bombing attack against a G7 Finance ministers meeting in Lille. Their history ended wit ...

". The group robbed banks, armoured cars and supermarkets with machine guns and grenade launchers. In March 1996 the group planned to assassinate international leaders at the G7 meeting in

, using a

car bomb A car bomb, bus bomb, van bomb, lorry bomb, or truck bomb, also known as a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device (VBIED), is an improvised explosive device designed to be detonated in an automobile or other vehicles. Car bombs can be roug ...

. French police found the bomb, and then killed four in the group in an apartment shootout. Caze escaped but was shot dead the next day after trying to ram a police checkpoint, on motorway E17 near

Kortrijk Kortrijk ( , ; or ''Kortrik''; ), sometimes known in English as Courtrai or Courtray ( ), is a Belgian City status in Belgium, city and Municipalities in Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region, Flemish Provinces of Belgium, province of We ...

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

. His

address book An address book or a name and address book is a book, or a database used for storing entries, called contacts. Each contact entry usually consists of a few standard fields (for example: first name, last name, company name, address, telephone numb ...

was found to contain the contact information for Algerian resident in Canada,

Fateh Kamel Fateh Kamel is an Algerian who was arrested in 1999 on charges of supporting a terrorist plot against attacks against French targets in Paris, and was sentenced to eight years' imprisonment. He was released early for good behaviour, and returned ...

, another Bosnian mujahideen and suspect of militant ties.

References

Sources

* * * * *

External links

"Profile: Roubaix gang"
* 20th-century French criminals 1969 births 1996 deaths French al-Qaeda members Bosnian mujahideen Armed Islamic Group of Algeria members Deaths by firearm in Belgium {{France-med-bio-stub