Topic: Rachid Ramda

Rachid Ramda (born 29 September 1969 , El Ogla, also known as "Abou Farès") has been convicted by the French justice system of being the mastermind behind the 1995 terror bombings in French public transportation systems. He has denied these accusations.

Rachid Ramda was born in El Ogla on 29 September 1969, in the East of Algeria. He is from a Berber, Chaouia, family, although Arabic is his native language . All the members of his family are well educated: one of his brothers is an architect-engineer, another a computer scientist. Ramda studied architecture at the Institut Polytechnique. He became a supporter of the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) when it was founded in 1988; his literature teacher was a co-founder of the FIS. According to his own statements, he left Algeria in 1989 for Pakistan, thus before the cancellation of the elections which set the stage for the Algerian Civil War, and before the formation of the Armed Islamic Group (GIA). In Pakistan he entered into contact with Muslim humanitarian NGOs and other NGOs (including Doctors Without Borders) assisting Afghan refugees. He then abandoned his architectural training. He went to London, where he wrote articles for the El Ansar newspaper. Ramda has denied the allegations of French justice that El Ansar was the official mouthpiece of the GIA.

In 1993, Ramda was sentenced to the death in Algeria in absentia for a terrorist attack at the airport of Algiers, which had killed 9 and wounded 123.