Menad Benchellali is a convicted terrorist arrested in
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 ...
in December 2002, and the reported brains behind the so-called Chechen Network, a group of Islamists who plotted a number of abortive terrorist attacks on French soil.
Benchellali was arrested as part of an investigation into efforts by French Islamists to send volunteers to fight Russian forces as part of the
Second Chechen War
Names
The Second Chechen War is also known as the Second Chechen Campaign () or the Second Russian Invasion of Chechnya from the Chechens, Chechen insurgents' point of view.Федеральный закон № 5-ФЗ от 12 января 19 ...
. In January 2004, a number of Benchellali's associates were arrested by French police, who claimed to have thwarted chemical or biological weapons attacks.
Benchellali himself is reported to have been a
chemical weapons
A chemical weapon (CW) is a specialized munition that uses chemicals formulated to inflict death or harm on humans. According to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), this can be any chemical compound intended as ...
specialist, and was known to his associates as The Chemist. French investigators assert that, when Benchellali returned to France, from
Afghanistan
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...
, he built a home lab in his bedroom, where he manufactured
ricin
Ricin ( ) is a lectin (a carbohydrate-binding protein) and a highly potent toxin produced in the seeds of the castor oil plant, ''Ricinus communis''. The median lethal dose (LD50) of ricin for mice is around 22 micrograms per kilogram of body ...
.
Benchellali is reported to have sent his younger brother and a friend,
Nizar Sassi Nizar Sassi (born August 1, 1979) is a citizen of France who was detained by the United States in their Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba.Chechen independence.
Benchellali was described as the group's leader, and received a 10-year sentence. Benchellali's father, a younger brother, and his mother were also convicted for their roles.
Mourad Benchellali published a book about his experiences, and on June 14, 2006 the ''
New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' published an op-ed by Mourad, in which he blamed Menad for tricking him into attending a military training camp on what he thought would be a kind of vacation. Mourad said he was looking forward to his day in court, for attending that training camp, after spending years in detention, without charge, in Guantanamo.