Chikar’s businesses in Spain have shut down, but he still owns companies in Morocco.
Rabat – Spanish police have arrested Nourdine Chikar, a Moroccan-Spanish businessman, after his conviction on charges of “economic crimes” related to ISIS. Police picked up Chikar at his residence near Alicante in southeast Spain on Wednesday, November 20, according to El Espanol.
Along with a Syrian named Ammar Termanini, Chikar provided ISIS with uniforms. Using his business that recycled used clothes, Chikar helped to smooth out obstacles related to shipping containers of clothes to Syria and Iraq.
Termanini also created a company for the export and import of textiles.
Chikar will go to jail for the economic crimes of money laundering, embezzlement, tax offenses, document forgery, and fraudulent money transfers, El Espanol reported.
Chikar is still facing charges of being part of a Jihadi cell based in Alicante, Valencia, and Ceuta that Spain dismantled in February 2016.
After his arrest, police transferred Chikar to Madrid so that he can be “available to the National Court.”
Police also arrested Chikar’s wife as an accessory to his crimes but released her after questioning.
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Termanini, who collaborated with Chikar, sent clothes to terrorist groups in Syria under the guise of humanitarian aid. Chikar also sought funding using his role as businessman, president of the local Concentaina mosque, and secretary of the Concentaina Islamic community.
For the first time in Spain, according to El Espanol, prosecutors brought the charge of committing a “crime against protected cultural property in armed conflict.”
The charge relates to the trafficking of historical artefacts from Syrian museums to raise money for ISIS.
Three years ago, Spanish police seized three containers in Cadiz and Valencia, packed with 10 tons of military uniforms and on their way to Turkey, according to the Spanish news outlet.
Spain arrested Nourdine Chikar in 2016, but he paid €60,000 in bail to be released.
At the time, Chikar’s three companies in southeast Spain, Melilla, and the Canary Islands ceased operations, although it is not clear if the government closed them. However, Morocco did not close Chikar’s €10,000 textile company in Tangier.
After he paid bail, El Espanol details, Chikar traveled to Morocco in December 2018 and signed business deals with local authorities in the north. In Nador, Chikar agreed to set up the “Karama Textile” company for import and export of textiles. And in Oujda, the regional assembly granted him €1 million for the company.
