Abu Hanzala, who inspired numerous to be a part of al-Qaeda and ISIS, runs jihadist outfit from a jail in Turkey

Abu Hanzala, who inspired numerous to be a part of al-Qaeda and ISIS, runs jihadist outfit from a jail in Turkey

Abdullah Bozkurt/Stockholm

 

The community of jailed jihadist preacher Abu Hanzala (genuine identify Halis Bayancuk), who encouraged numerous young adult men to be a part of al-Qaeda and the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), is up and operating in Turkey with the complete expertise of the Turkish authorities.

The team has in fact expanded its operations with a new entity called Ecir Kapısı Hizmet Eğitim ve Kültür Derneği, a front charity that assists elevate cash for the team, recognized in April 2019.

The association’s information, reviewed by Nordic Keep track of, demonstrate that its licensing was authorised by the Interior Ministry beneath registration quantity 34-251-178 and that it is at present outlined as an active firm.

The association raises funds in foreign denominations and Turkish lira applying Kuveyt Türk, an Islamic loan company operate by the close associates of the Turkish president, or the revenue transfer community of Intelligent, formerly recognised as TransferWise, a London-based economical know-how corporation.

It has branches in various provinces including Diyarbakır, Bursa, Konya and Van.

 

The operation of Abu Hanzala network’s front charity was approved by the Turkish govt: 

Ecir_Kapisi_Affiliation

 

The Hanzala group’s publishing household, Tevhid Kitabevi, dependent in Konya, also stays lively promoting textbooks, when its on line version disseminates Abu Hanzala’s article content and sermons.

Abu Hanzala, now 37 years previous, has been underneath the checking of Turkish police because 2007, when he began preaching radical sights in line with al-Qaeda ideology.

His father Hacı Bayancuk was concerned in the murder of Diyarbakır Police Chief Ali Gaffar Okkan, who was killed on January 24, 2001 alongside with 5 other police officers. He was convicted of membership in Turkish Hizbullah, an Iran-backed terrorist group that attracts its recruits from radical Kurdish teams. Hizbullah’s political arm, Huda-Par, is at present allied with the ruling Justice and Development Social gathering (AKP) led by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Abu Hanzala used 4 years in Egypt but had to flee to Turkey when Egyptian authorities commenced a crackdown on his team there. He was included in the Turkish al-Qaeda community following Habip Akdaş, a main al-Qaeda figure in Turkey who carried out the lethal 2003 assaults on the British Consulate Typical, the community HSBC headquarters and two synagogues in İstanbul, was killed in a US airstrike in Iraq.

In 2008 Abu Hanzala and 35 other suspects were being detained in link with a new terrorist plot focusing on a synagogue in Istanbul. He was indicted, with prosecutors demanding a sentence of 15 to 22.5 years’ imprisonment for main a terrorist organization. In accordance to a court transient filed by trial prosecutor Celal Kara in September 2009, Abu Hanzala was the selection a person suspect in the prosecution of al-Qaeda together with 31 co-conspirators.

 

Prosecutor Celal Kara’s legal brief on Abu Hanzala and his associates: 

Court docket_brief_Halis_Bayancuk_2009

 

The indictment, reviewed by Nordic Keep an eye on, disclosed that the police investigation into the group concluded that Abu Hanzala was leading a group at the time in line with al-Qaeda ideology and was poised to have out terrorist acts in Turkey. The investigators found that Abu Hanzala was meeting with known jihadists who have been convicted and served time in prison and speaking with them on the telephone.

Abu Hanzala usually made visits to Gaziantep, a province on the Turkish-Syrian border, and met with jihadist militants who had been afterwards killed in a shootout with the law enforcement. The law enforcement wiretap and surveillance of the group and its unlawful madrasas revealed that Bayancuk was in shut contact with jihadist Mehmet Yılmaz, who was killed when he opened hearth on police in the course of a raid.

The team rejects Turkey’s constitutional buy, which is deemed to be blasphemy, and aims to create a religious state primarily based on the ideas of shariah. It accredited the use of arms and violence to topple the regime and market the group’s agenda.

The police uncovered some bomb making materials and notes on how to develop improvised explosive devices during the execution of lookup warrants on the premises of suspects.

Since then, Abu Hanzala has been in and out of prison, confronted legal prosecution and stood trial. The Erdoğan govt lent a hand to him when he was detained in a January 2014 al-Qaeda nationwide sweep. The investigation uncovered that the community was associated in the transfer of foreign and Turkish fighters into Syria and facilitating the entry of al-Qaeda fighters from countries this sort of as Pakistan and Afghanistan into Syrian territory.

 

Abu Hanzala and his spouse getting escorted by the law enforcement:

 

The suspects were being also collecting donations from locals in Turkey and transferring them to al-Qaeda fighters in Syria in cooperation with Turkish intelligence company MIT.

Having said that, the prosecution was thwarted when the authorities killed the investigation by removing police chiefs and prosecutors who have been looking into Hanzala and other al-Qaeda militants. Hanzala was introduced in October 2014 just after the government set up a distinctive partisan court docket program acknowledged as the penal courts of peace.

Erdoğan later enlisted him as an ally from his main critic Fethullah Gülen, a Turkish Muslim scholar resident in the US who opposed Erdoğan’s guidelines in arming radical jihadist groups and criticized pervasive corruption in the administration.

Hanzala was even portrayed in the pro-governing administration Star each day in December 2014 as a victimized person. In an job interview with the each day, Hanzala accused Gülen of being driving investigations into his group. He experienced been authorized to freely preach in various provinces and grow his system.

In July 2015 an emboldened Hanzala led hundreds of his supporters in Eid prayers in Istanbul following which they criticized the Turkish governing administration and made a call for war. The meeting was branded by the opposition as an assembly of ISIS militants.

 

Abi Hanzala group’s major office environment is positioned in Istanbul’s Bağcılar district.

The team gathered at picnic grounds in Istanbul’s Ömerli neighborhood to execute the prayers. Hanzala known as on his supporters following the prayers to have interaction in war. As element of his 14-minute speech, he criticized democracy and termed for the development of a condition governed by religious legislation.

Hanzala apparently crossed the line when he criticized federal government officials in 2017 immediately after a planned talking engagement was cancelled by the Ankara governor amid criticism from opposition events. He was arrested in June 2017 and despatched to jail. In his initially hearing on April 9, 2020 the court docket ruled to launch him, but he was rapidly rearrested when opposition get-togethers questioned the release in parliament.

He was also just one of the preachers who motivated the killer of Russian Ambassador Andrei Karlov in December 2016. According to the forensic report, the personal computer utilised by assassin Mevlüt Mert Altıntaş, a law enforcement officer, there was a history of a look for on YouTube of Hanzala’s movies on August 25, 2016. Promptly after taking pictures the envoy, Altıntaş declared he acted due to the fact of Russian intervention in Syria and built a jihadist hand gesture.

 

Court doc which displays that the killer of the Russian ambassador watched Abu Hanzala’s video clips on YouTube: 

Karlov_Killer_Bayancuk

 

Hanzala was on the record when he started out praising ISIS and criticizing the offensive introduced from it. “When Muslims had manufactured some quite critical conquests and have been practically about to start off major the men and women in Iraq, the US and the Saudis — with the assist of al-Saud scholars — organized groups known as ‘Sahwa’ and started off to fight against ISIS. These days, they use the precise exact name in Syria for those who are preventing from ISIS, who simply call by themselves ‘Sahwa,’ or ‘awakening unit’,” he stated.

“The principal situation is with whom a answer for the Syrian issue will be mentioned. These people today claim that devoid of the aid of the West a resolution for the Syrian conflict is not doable. ISIS leaders say, even so, that the Syrian difficulty is not a challenge to be talked about with the West. They additional say that the factor you call politics is of two forms: Either you rely on Wahy (Revelation) or you rely on Aql (Reason). If you depend on revelation, God forbids Muslims to function with Westerners. If you rely on rationale, history proves that those people who ally with the West become losers. ISIS doesn’t want to sit with the West at the very same desk to negotiate the upcoming of Syria nonetheless, the many others do.”

 

Abu Hanzala’s team is witnessed providing a press statement that criticized the government on July 11, 2021.

 

“The West is aware of that ISIS does not want two items: 1) Sitting down with the West to discuss the difficulties of the Muslims and 2) accepting democracy for a transitional federal government. The war against ISIS that is using spot at the moment is an operation in which the focus on is a specified Aqidah [Salafisim] and expelling the Muhajireen  (“immigrants,” referring to the international fighters and their people who went to and reside in Syria) from Syria. Whoever supports this is with out the slightest question a Kaffir, an infidel,” he additional.

In 2015 Hanzala warned the Erdoğan governing administration versus using a extra active purpose in the US-led struggle towards ISIS. “I believe Turkey could be harmed because of it,” he stated, introducing: “I wouldn’t know what variety of damage. But if you staff up with the West in their war … you’d drop all legitimacy in the eyes of the people of the Middle East.”

While he afterwards pursued a far more essential line with regard to ISIS, Hanzala’s preaching prompted many to sign up for jihadist teams including ISIS and al-Qaeda. Although he continues to be at the rear of bars, he operates his network from his jail cell, sending his frequent writings to be released in the group’s magazine.

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