Abdesselam Tazi, a Moroccan national is accused of recruiting young people into the ranks of the Islamic State in exchange for money. He says “it’s all lies and only wants to live in peace in Portugal.” Accused of belonging to the terrorist group Islamic State, the 65-year-old has repeatedly visited the Refugee Shelter Centres to recruit operatives for this organization, promising them 1800 dollars a month, the prosecution describes

The prosecution asked Tuesday, 4th of June for an effective sentence of Abdesselam Tazi, a Moroccan accused in Portugal of joining an international terrorist organization, another for ‘forgery with final goals on terrorism’, four accusations for using false documents to finance terrorist recruitment and a terrorist financing crime. His defence, in turn, requested that he be acquitted of all crimes related to terrorism and only convicted of only one crime of using false documents and counterfeiting of currency. “I’m sorry,” the defendant said at the end of the session. The sentence will be known on July the 2nd.

Iman, a 29-year-old Moroccan woman working in a call centre, said it was Tazi who helped her travel to Portugal and explained everything she had to do to seek asylum and then live in the country. She saw his second time, at the Refugee Shelter Center in Bobadela and was not interested in being friends with him.

Already in final allegations, prosecutor Cristina Janeiro said that throughout the trial was produced sufficient evidence for the conviction. According to the prosecutor, it was more than clear and evident the “jihadist indoctrination” of a young man who had been in Syria for two months and returned to Portugal to radicalize more young people at the Bobadela Refugee Center with a promise of a better life.



Amine, cousin of Imam, the Moroccan woman, told in court that he had been in the ranks of the Islamic State for two months in Syria and then was sent to Portugal. “He said that Tazi himself invited him to go to Syria and that he tried to dissuade his brother, having failed.”