Karim el-Mejjati

Karim Thami el-Mejjati (October 30, 1967 – April 2005) was a Moroccan-French convicted terrorist who has been claimed to have aided the Riyadh compound bombings, the 2003 Casablanca bombings, the 2004 Madrid train bombings and the 2005 London bombings as member of the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group.

A 1985 law graduate, she later remarked that the student unrest over the management's attempts to fire her were likely what brought both her and el-Mejjati back to being observant Muslims.

He dropped out of medical school, and they traveled to an Islamic conference in Paris for a month.

They had two sons, named Ilyass and Adam.

They enrolled him in a French-speaking school from which he graduated in 1986.

He also spoke English and sub-par Arabic.

He kept a poster of Clint Eastwood taped to his bedroom wall, and dreamed of traveling to the United States.

A secular Muslim, he reportedly ate pork and drank alcohol in violation of Islamic law, and enjoyed partying at Les Sablettes beach resort, as well as visiting Ceuta and Melilla.

On September 25, 1991, he married a Tunisian-American named Fatiha, who was seven years older than he was and had been dismissed from her job at the Casablanca medical school where he was studying because she started wearing the niqab face-covering.

By 1992, he'd returned to France and begun selling Moroccan handicrafts to support his desire to travel and volunteer as a Bosnian mujahideen.

After one tour in Bosnia, he returned to bring his wife back to the Balkans with him, but was stymied by Germany's refusal to grant a visa.

Returning alone, he was arrested for a month by Croatian forces, before being released at the request of the French government, although he was forbidden to return to Bosnia for five years.

Upon returning to Morocco, he rented a two-room apartment and began wearing Afghan clothing and a Long Beard.

When women visited, he and his male friends would sleep in their cars parked on the street, while the women slept inside.

Neighbours later recalled that he once loudly berated a couple for their public display of affection.

In early 1994, he traveled to Mecca on the hajj pilgrimage, and then continued on to Afghanistan, where he enrolled at the Khalden training camp where he contracted malaria and had to be sent home to Morocco.

Once, upon returning to Morocco, he was questioned about the Pakistani visa in his passport and the Abdullah Azzam book he was reading.

Around this time, his wife was diagnosed with cancer.

He maintained a relationship with Yusuf Fikri, leader of the Takfir wal-Hijra.

In 1996, he took a second wife at the urging of his wife, the Belgian Fatihah al-Hawshy who lived in England and was a friend of his wife.

Around 1997, he traveled to New Jersey on the invitation of a friend for several months.

It was one of two visits he made to the United States prior to 1999.

He later listed the address of a New York City bookseller, Abdulrahman Farhane, as his own - later entered as evidence against Farhane following accusations he financially supported terrorism.

While American authorities claimed he hadn't entered the country since 1999, Saudi media reported that he traveled back to the United States with al-Hawshy, his second wife, in 2000 and dropped her off there while he traveled to Pakistan.

In July 2001, el-Mejjati and his wife determined to leave Morocco permanently, and flew to Spain for two weeks while awaiting their entry visa to Iran.

When Italy declined their request for travel documents, they flew out of Frankfurt instead.

After landing in Tehran, they crossed the border into Afghanistan the following day.

He traveled to Kandahar, ostensibly to seek out Osama bin Laden even though he had no intentions of joining al-Qaeda, but was disappointed to discover the militant leader had already left the city.

He later managed to see both bin Laden and Mullah Omar.

Following the American reprisal bombings following the September 11 attacks, el-Mejjati and his wife left Afghanistan and traveled to Dhaka, Bangladesh where they remained for ten months after their passports were seized due to fake Pakistani visa stamps.

They moved to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, using false Qatari passports, after that.

Some have claimed the move was authorised by bin Laden to build a "Saudi network".

After moving to Riyadh, el-Mejjati agreed to allow Khalid al-Juhani, a veteran of the First Chechen War and Afghan Civil War who was being sought by Americans, stay with his family.

He asked his wife to help him find a wife for al-Juhani, who was not supposed to be involved in any more fighting.

On March 23, 2003, his wife and 10-year-old son Ilyass left the city to try to reach an ophthalmologist.

They had been originally intended to travel with al-Juhani, which caught the attention of the Mabahith secret police.

However, al-Juhani argued he wasn't feeling well and asked a brother and his wife to instead accompany el-Mejjati and her son.

He was killed, along with his 11-year-old son, by Saudi authorities in a series of raids in April 2005.

His wife maintains that he was not connected to all the attacks but insinuates that he had arranged attacks against Saudi Arabia, provoking their anger.

A medical student, el-Mejjati was born to a wealthy Moroccan father who worked in commerce and French mother who worked in cosmetics.