Osama Krayem (, born 16 August 1992), also known as Naïm or Naim al Hamed, is a Swedish-born Syrian convicted terrorist and mass murderer. He was involved in the 2015 Paris bombings and the

2016 Brussels bombings On 22 March 2016, two coordinated terrorist attacks in and close to Brussels, Belgium, were carried out by the Islamic State (IS). Two suicide bombers detonated bombs at Brussels Airport in Zaventem just outside Brussels, and one detonated a b ...

.''Paris Match': Qui est Osama Krayem, complice présumé des kamikazes de Bruxelles?
In June 2022 he was sentenced to 30 years in prison for having assisted planning of the Paris attacks including obtained weapons. In Brussels, he was one of five men arrested on 8 April 2016 by the Belgian police. On 25 July 2023 Krayem was found guilty of terrorist murder in the 2016 attacks. Krayem had been seen with the Metro bomber who blew himself up at Maelbeek. Krayem was present at the burning alive of the Jordanian pilot Muath al-Kasasbeh of which U.S. President Barack Obama described as "vicious".

Personal background

Krayem was born in 1992 in

Malmö Malmö is the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, third-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg, and the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, sixth-largest city in Nordic countries, the Nordic region. Located on ...

, Sweden to Palestinian immigrants from Syria and grew up in

Rosengård Rosengård (literally "Rose Manor") was a city district () in the center of Malmö Municipality, Sweden. On 1 July 2013, it was merged with Husie, forming Öster. In 2012, Rosengård had a population of 23,563 of the municipality's 307,758. It ...

Malmö Municipality Malmö Municipality (), or City of Malmö (''Malmö stad''), is a Swedish municipality in Skåne County, the southernmost of the counties of Sweden (and conterminous with the historical province (''landskap'') of Scania). The central city is ...

. At eleven years old, he participated in the 2005 documentary "Utan gränser – en film om idrott och integration" (''Without Borders - A Film About Sports and Integration''), a film described by Swedish newspaper

Aftonbladet (, lit. "The evening paper") is a Swedish language, Swedish daily tabloid newspaper published in Stockholm, Sweden. It is one of the largest daily newspapers in the Nordic countries. History and profile The newspaper was founded by Lar ...

as "a documentary on how to succeed with integration" of migrants into Swedish society. Krayem is thought to have radicalized in his early twenties, frequently watching videos by

Anwar al-Awlaki Anwar Nasser Abdulla al-Awlaki (; April 21 or 22, 1971September 30, 2011) was an American-Yemeni lecturer assassinated Drone strikes in Yemen, in Yemen in 2011 by a U.S. government drone strike ordered by President Barack Obama. Al-Awlaki was th ...

, an American and Yemeni

imam Imam (; , '; : , ') is an Islamic leadership position. For Sunni Islam, Sunni Muslims, Imam is most commonly used as the title of a prayer leader of a mosque. In this context, imams may lead Salah, Islamic prayers, serve as community leaders, ...

and Islamic lecturer and alleged senior recruiter and motivator involved in planning terrorist operations for the Islamist militant group

Al-Qaeda , image = Flag of Jihad.svg , caption = Jihadist flag, Flag used by various al-Qaeda factions , founder = Osama bin Laden{{Assassinated, Killing of Osama bin Laden , leaders = {{Plainlist, * Osama bin Lad ...

. Krayem also reportedly tried to recruit other Arab Swedish youth to join the fight in

Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...

.RTBF: Qui est Osama Krayem, l'accompagnateur du kamikaze du metro Maelbeek, interpellé à Laeken?
Until he was arrested in

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

on 8 April 2016, he was one of Europe's most wanted fugitives, considered to be a hardened operative of ISIS. The ''Wall Street Journal'' reported that on 20 April 2016 that Belgian authorities spelled the subject's first name as "Ossama," where previously it had been publicised as "Osama." His detention was extended by one month on the same day.

Terrorist activities

Krayem left Sweden sometime in 2014 to join the

Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant The Islamic State (IS), also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and Daesh, is a transnational Salafi jihadist organization and unrecognized quasi-state. IS occupied signi ...

(ISIS) in Syria to fight alongside the anti-Assad Islamic militant group. He was said to be one of the first Muslim Swedes to have left the country to join ISIS. In January 2015, he was identified by the Swedish press yet again in a

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

post sent to his brother in Sweden showing him reportedly in

Deir ez-Zor Deir ez-Zor () is the largest city in eastern Syria and the seventh largest in the country. Located on the banks of the Euphrates to the northeast of the capital Damascus, Deir ez-Zor is the capital of the Deir ez-Zor Governorate. In the 2018 ...

dressed in military fatigues, standing in front of an ISIS flag and holding an

AK-47 The AK-47, officially known as the Avtomat Kalashnikova (; also known as the Kalashnikov or just AK), is an assault rifle that is chambered for the 7.62×39mm cartridge. Developed in the Soviet Union by Russian small-arms designer Mikhail Kala ...

. On 14 March 2015, he uploaded a film clip to his Facebook page showing an execution of a 19 year old

Palestinian Palestinians () are an Arab ethnonational group native to the Levantine region of Palestine. *: "Palestine was part of the first wave of conquest following Muhammad's death in 632 CE; Jerusalem fell to the Caliph Umar in 638. The indigenous p ...

from

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

. Several people from

, among them Krayem's brother and friends, liked the clip along with individuals in Syria. Krayem later returned to Europe using a false passport travelling the migrant route from Syria to

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

Leros Leros (), also called Lero (from the Italian language), is a Greek island and municipality in the Dodecanese in the southern Aegean Sea. It lies from Athens's port of Piraeus, from which it can be reached by a nine-hour ferry ride or by a 45-min ...

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

where he presented himself on 20 September 2015 as Naïm Al Hamed (identified as a Syrian national born on 1 January 1988 and originating from

Hama Hama ( ', ) is a city on the banks of the Orontes River in west-central Syria. It is located north of Damascus and north of Homs. It is the provincial capital of the Hama Governorate. With a population of 996,000 (2023 census), Hama is one o ...

, Syria according to the falsified papers). Under this guise as Naïm Al Hamed, he continued to Europe residing in Belgium.

November 2015 Paris attacks

In October 2015, Krayem allegedly met

Salah Abdeslam Salah Abdeslam (; born 15 September 1989) is a Belgian-born Islamic terrorist who was sentenced to life in prison in France in 2022 as the only surviving member of the 10-man unit that carried out the attacks in Paris on 13 November 2015, in w ...

Ulm Ulm () is the sixth-largest city of the southwestern German state of Baden-Württemberg, and with around 129,000 inhabitants, it is Germany's 60th-largest city. Ulm is located on the eastern edges of the Swabian Jura mountain range, on the up ...

, Germany to discuss possible cooperation in terrorist attacks. On 19 April 2016, Krayem was linked to the

November 2015 Paris attacks A series of coordinated Islamist terrorist attacks took place on Friday, 13 November 2015 in Paris, France, and the city's northern suburb, Saint-Denis. Beginning at 21:16, three suicide bombers struck outside the Stade de France in Saint-De ...

, as it was determined that his DNA was present in the apartments used by the assailants. In June 2018 he was

extradited In an extradition, one jurisdiction delivers a person accused or convicted of committing a crime in another jurisdiction, into the custody of the other's law enforcement. It is a cooperative law enforcement procedure between the two jurisdic ...

to France into custody of the

National Gendarmerie The National Gendarmerie ( ) is one of two national law enforcement forces of France, along with the National Police (France), National Police. The Gendarmerie is a branch of the French Armed Forces placed under the jurisdiction of the Minister ...

to be interrogated on his role in the 13 November Paris attack, where 130 were killed. In June 2022 he was sentenced to 30 years in prison for having assisted planning of the Paris attacks including obtained weapons. At trials it was also disclosed that Krayem and Tunisian Sofien Ayari also both were involved in planning a separate attack on Amsterdam airport as part of the same cell.

2016 Brussels bombings

Krayem is believed to be the man seen on CCTV at the Brussels City 2 shopping centre, where he bought the rucksacks later used for the 22 March 2016 terror attack in

Brussels Airport Brussels Airport is the main international airport of Belgium. It is located in the municipality of Zaventem in Flemish Brabant, northeast of Brussels. Also informally known as Brussels-National Airport or Brussels-Zaventem Airport, Brussels ...

Zaventem Zaventem () is a municipality in the province of Flemish Brabant, in the Flemish region of Belgium. It is located in the Dijleland area, one of the three large recreational areas which together form the '' Groene Gordel'' ("Green Belt") around th ...

. His

DNA Deoxyribonucleic acid (; DNA) is a polymer composed of two polynucleotide chains that coil around each other to form a double helix. The polymer carries genetic instructions for the development, functioning, growth and reproduction of al ...

was found in the

Schaerbeek (French language, French, ; former History of Dutch orthography, Dutch spelling) or (modern Dutch language, Dutch, ) is one of the List of municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, 19 municipalities of the Brussels, Brussels-Capital Reg ...

(Brussels) apartment used by the Zaventem airport bombers. He is also believed to have been the second man alongside bomber Khalid El Bakraoui at the Pétillon metro station. El Bakraoui is thought to have carried out the bombing of Maelbeek metro station minutes later on the morning of 22 March 2016. During interrogation, Krayem confessed that he was the second metro bomber also carrying a backpack full of explosives, and explained that he felt regret at the last moment and therefore never tried to detonate his suicide bomb. On July 25, 2023, Krayem was found guilty of terrorist murder in the 2016 attacks in Belgium. Krayem was sentenced to life in prison.

The killing of Muath al-Kasasbeh

During trial in 2018, Belgian investigators found that Krayem was at the scene where 26-year-old Jordanian air force

pilot An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its Aircraft flight control system, directional flight controls. Some other aircrew, aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are al ...

Moaz al Kasasbeh was burned to death by ISIL in January 2015. In January 2025, Swedish authorities announced that Krayem, currently serving a lifetime sentence in Belgium for his involvement in the

, was to be tried at a criminal court in

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

for his involvement in the killing of al-Kasasbeh. Krayem is expected to be transferred to Sweden for the trial. He is to be charged with acts of terrorism and various war crimes.

References