Profile: Moez Ben Abdelkader Fezzani aka Abu Nassim

The following is a profile in support of: They Always Come Back: A Look at the Ben Khemais Network in Milan

Italy

Fezzani (ANSA)

Fezzani was born 23 March 1969 in Tunisia, and allegedly arrived in Italy in 1989. After being radicalized, he lived at an apartment at via Paravia 84, in the San Siro quarter of Milan, which became known as the “casa dei tunisi.”  He shared this apartment with Lassaad Sassi.  Under the influence of ICI head Anwar Shabaan, the apartment in Via Paravia became a base for about twenty former fighters (Tunisians, Algerians and Libyans) living between Milan and Bologna.  Fezzani had a run-in with police in 1997 Fezzani, in which he was caught selling false banknotes in bars and shops between Milan and Cremona.  He left Milan on 19 August 1997, arriving eight days later in Peshawar but was arrested for possessing a false visa.  In 1998, DIGOS and Italian prosecutors triggered one of the first rounds of investigations against jihadists, called operazione Ritorno because it concerned those veterans from the war in Bosnia.  Fezzani was a subject of interest in that case, and various other Italian investigations would encompass him, e.g. “Rakno Sadess” [Sixth Pillar], even linking him to the Meliani Group who plotted to attack the Christmas Market in Strasbourg.