The Council of State (Areios Pagos), Greece’s highest court, authorized the extradition to Morocco of Mohamed Boudarga, also known as “Abou Mohamed Al Fateh,” a former ISIS emir in Syria, on Wednesday, reported Greek media.
The decision follows his arrest in Thessaloniki in July 2021, upon an Interpol red alert and a Moroccan prosecutor’s arrest warrant.
Moroccan security services, including Intelligence Agency (DGED) and Territorial Surveillance services (DGST), collaborated with Greek counterparts to arrest Boudarga and his French-Moroccan wife, Louiza Hajjaoui, alias “Oum Haïjar,” who had attempted to enter Europe using fraudulent travel documents.
Boudarga, a 30-year-old Moroccan, is said to have joined ISIS in Syria in 2014 and served in the “Special Brigade” in Deir ez-Zor as well as Isis’ religious police (Hisbah) in Raqqa.
Among the charges leveled against him by Moroccan authorities are the formation of a criminal organization and the commission of terrorist acts. In his most recent pleading, he claimed that he was simply an ISIS member in name and had not committed the accused acts.
Boudarga’s failure to present himself in person before the Greek Supreme Court, his lack of formal identification or authentic entry documents into Greece, and his attorney’s lack of a power of attorney or other document attesting to his authority to represent him, cast doubt on the accuracy of his claims and factored into the Court’s decision to extradite him, according to the Court decision itself.
Despite Boudarga’s claims that his human rights would be infringed in Morocco, Greece’s Minister of Justice approved his extradition on Jan. 1, 2023, upholding prior judgments by the Thessaloniki Court of Appeals and Greece’s Supreme Court.