Pro-CCC supporters protest against arrest of ex-members

9 June 2008

BELGIUM – Some 100 people demonstrated Saturday evening before the prisons where former CCC (far left Communist Combatant Cells) members are being held.

Five people have been arrested on suspicion of having links with a far-left terrorist group in Italy. They are Jean François Legros, Betrand Sassoye, Wahoub Fayoumi, Constant Hormans and Abdallah Ibrahim Abdallah

Legros, a member of Secours Rouge was the latest to be arrested. Secours Rouge was founded by Sassoye, the mastermind of the CCC. The group attacked Nato facilities and bombed corporate headquarters and police building between 1984 and 1986.

Sassoye was sentenced to life imprisonment in October 1988 for his involvement in a series of bomb attacks carried out by the far-left terror group CCC during the mid-1980’s. He was released on parole in July 2000.

One of the other people held in custody is Fayoumi, a journalist with the Francophone public broadcaster RTBF.

The five are suspected of having links to the Partito Communista Politico-Militare (PCPM).

A sixth person, Pierre Carette, has also been detained. Judicial authorities say that Carette was detained for breaching the conditions of his parole and for keeping in touch with ex—CCC member. He is not involved in their terrorism enquiry.

Fifteen PCPM members were arrested in the Italian city of Milan early last year.

They are alleged to have been plotting attracts against politicians and industrialists, including the Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

The investigation by Italian police revealed that the PCPM terror suspects had been in contact with the five people detained in Brussels.

The suspects will remain in custody until further notice.

The 100 people who demonstrated on Saturday believed that the people have been falsely accused and that they have been detained without a valid reason.

[flandersnews.be / Expatica]