Hayat Boumeddiene
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Hayat Boumeddiene (born 26 June 1988) is currently being sought by French police as a suspected accomplice of her partner,
Amedy Coulibaly Amedy Coulibaly (; 27 February 1982 – 9 January 2015) was a Malian-French man who was the prime suspect in the Montrouge shooting, in which municipal police officer Clarissa Jean-Philippe was shot and killed, and was the hostage-taker and gu ...
, who was the main suspect for the Montrouge shooting, in which
municipal police Municipal police, city police, or local police are law enforcement agencies that are under the control of local government. This includes the municipal government, where it is the smallest administrative subdivision. They receive funding ...
officer Clarissa Jean-Philippe (aged 26; from
Martinique Martinique ( , ; gcf, label=Martinican Creole, Matinik or ; Kalinago: or ) is an island and an overseas department/region and single territorial collectivity of France. An integral part of the French Republic, Martinique is located in th ...
) was shot and killed, and was the hostage-taker and gunman in the
Porte de Vincennes siege On 9 January 2015, Amedy Coulibaly, armed with a submachine gun, an assault rifle, and two Tokarev pistols, entered and attacked a Hypercacher kosher supermarket in Porte de Vincennes in Paris, France. There, Coulibaly murdered four Jewish h ...
, in which he killed four hostages and was killed by police. According to Coulibaly's attorney, she was the more radical of the two. She is currently being sought by French police as a suspected accomplice of Coulibaly, alleged to have helped him commit his attacks. She arrived in Turkey five days before the attacks, was described by newspapers as "France's most wanted woman", and was last tracked on 10 January 2015 to the
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant An Islamic state is a State (polity), state that has a form of government based on sharia, Islamic law (sharia). As a term, it has been used to describe various historical Polity, polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a t ...
-controlled border town of
Tell Abyad Tell Abyad; ku, گرێ سپی, Girê Spî; hy, Թել Աբյադ; syr, ܬܠ ܐܒܝܕ. is a town in northern Syria. It is the administrative center of the Tell Abyad District within the Raqqa Governorate. Located along the Balikh River, it cons ...
in Syria.
Hasna Ait Boulahcen The 2015 Saint-Denis raid was a police raid which became a shootout between at least one hundred French police and soldiers and suspected members of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis. Following the Nove ...
who was killed in the later Paris attacks was a fan of hers and lauded her on Facebook.For Woman Dead in French Police Raid, Unlikely Path to Terror
''The New York Times''
The French female extremist’s curious path to Islamist violence
''The Washington Post''
Though not yet captured, Boumeddiene would be convicted in absentia by a French court in December 2020 and handed a 30 year prison sentence.


Biography

Boumeddiene was born into an
Algeria ) , image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Algiers , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , relig ...
n immigrant family of seven children, in Villiers-sur-Marne in the eastern suburbs of Paris. Her mother died when Boumeddiene was 8. She and some of her siblings were subsequently taken into
foster care Foster care is a system in which a minor has been placed into a ward, group home (residential child care community, treatment center, etc.), or private home of a state-certified caregiver, referred to as a "foster parent" or with a family mem ...
. Her father was an infrequent visitor, even more so apparently after he remarried when she was 12. She told detectives that she changed careers numerous times because she was beaten often. An investigative source said she altered her surname in her teenage years to "make it sound more French". Boumeddiene was employed as a cashier in 2007 when she met and began dating Coulibaly in
Juvisy-sur-Orge Juvisy-sur-Orge (, literally ''Juvisy on Orge'') is a commune in the Essonne department in Île-de-France in northern France. It is located 18 km south-east of Paris, a few kilometres south of Orly Airport. The site of the town has been oc ...
, southeast of Paris. On 5 July 2009, they got married in an Islamic religious ceremony. She and Coulibaly lived in Bagneux, a southern suburb of Paris, and were very religious. In 2010, during four days of questioning after police discovered large amounts of assault rifle ammunition in their flat, Boumeddiene told counter-terrorism officers that she saw some terrorist attacks as justifiable. She told investigators that she and Coulibaly had visited French-Algerian jihadist terrorist
Djamel Beghal Djamel Beghal (also transliterated as Jamel Beghal and Djamel Begal) ( ar, جمال بغال; born December 2nd 1965 in Bordj Bou Arréridj, Algeria) is an Algerian terrorist convict.crossbow A crossbow is a ranged weapon using an elastic launching device consisting of a bow-like assembly called a ''prod'', mounted horizontally on a main frame called a ''tiller'', which is hand-held in a similar fashion to the stock of a long fi ...
practice." In October 2014, she and Coulibaly went to perform the
Hajj The Hajj (; ar, حَجّ '; sometimes also spelled Hadj, Hadji or Haj in English) is an annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, the holiest city for Muslims. Hajj is a mandatory religious duty for Muslims that must be carried ...
in
Mecca Mecca (; officially Makkah al-Mukarramah, commonly shortened to Makkah ()) is a city and administrative center of the Mecca Province of Saudi Arabia, and the Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. It is inland from Jeddah on the Red ...
, the pilgrimage obligatory for every Muslim who is able to do so. Police say Boumeddiene was frequently in contact with Chérif Kouachi's wife, including 500 calls between them in 2014. She and Coulibaly disappeared in December 2014.


Escape and manhunt

According to Spanish authorities, Coulibaly drove Boumeddiene from France to Madrid, Spain, on 31 December 2014, and stayed with her until 2 January 2015. According to Turkish authorities, on 2 January 2015 Boumeddiene flew from Madrid to
Istanbul Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...
,
Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...
, with 23-year-old Mahdi Sabri Belhoucine, a French citizen of North African origin whose brother Mohammed was convicted of terrorism charges in 2010 in France and imprisoned for a year in Villepinte prison, and both had return tickets dated 9 January that they never used. Because of her "suspicious behavior," Turkey's intelligence agency (the National Intelligence Organisation (MİT)) put her under surveillance, following her movements for two days, listening to her cellphone conversations, and tracking her cellphone until she left Turkey. While in Turkey, the two stayed at a hotel in Istanbul in adjoining rooms, according to Turkish Foreign Affairs Minister
Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu (; born 5 February 1968) is a Turkish diplomat and politician who has served as Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkey since 24 November 2015. He previously served in the same position from August 2014 to August 2015. He is ...
. Turkish officials said she and Mahdi Sabri Belhoucine left Istanbul for
Şanlıurfa Urfa, officially known as Şanlıurfa () and in ancient times as Edessa, is a city in southeastern Turkey and the capital of Şanlıurfa Province. Urfa is situated on a plain about 80 km east of the Euphrates River. Its climate features ...
in southeastern Turkey close to the Syrian border on 4 January. They stayed there four days, during which time Boumeddiene phoned France several times. Boumeddiene is believed to have then crossed the
Syria–Turkey border The border between the Syrian Arab Republic and the Republic of Turkey ( ar, الحدود السورية التركية, translit=alhudud alsuwriat alturkia; tr, Suriye–Türkiye sınırı) is about long, and runs from the Mediterranean Sea ...
into Syria with Sabri on 8 January, on the day Coulibaly shot and killed a policewoman, using her car in the attack. Çavuşoğlu said: "We understand this thanks to telephone recordings." The last recorded phone call from her was on 10 January, from the
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant An Islamic state is a State (polity), state that has a form of government based on sharia, Islamic law (sharia). As a term, it has been used to describe various historical Polity, polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a t ...
-controlled town of
Tell Abyad Tell Abyad; ku, گرێ سپی, Girê Spî; hy, Թել Աբյադ; syr, ܬܠ ܐܒܝܕ. is a town in northern Syria. It is the administrative center of the Tell Abyad District within the Raqqa Governorate. Located along the Balikh River, it cons ...
in Syria, close to the border and directly across it from Akçakale. ''The New York Times'' stated that she "is reported to have fled abroad, possibly to Syria to try and join the
Islamic State An Islamic state is a State (polity), state that has a form of government based on sharia, Islamic law (sharia). As a term, it has been used to describe various historical Polity, polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a t ...
, to which Mr. Coulibaly declared allegiance". Boumeddiene is currently being sought in connection with having allegedly helped Coulibaly commit his attacks, and has been described by newspapers as "France's most wanted woman". She is described by French police as "armed and extremely dangerous", having trained to use firearms, and is on the run. A French police official said Boumeddiene is part of a terrorist cell of about eight people. In February 2015, French authorities were investigating whether a woman in a video released 3 February by French-speaking ISIS fighters might be Boumeddiene. The video, titled ''Blow Up France 2'', shows a woman standing next to the ISIS speaker, wearing camouflage clothing and holding a weapon. The Islamic State's magazine '' Dabiq'' praised her in a long interview, and
Hasna Aitboulahcen The 2015 Saint-Denis raid was a police raid which became a shootout between at least one hundred French police and soldiers and suspected members of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis. Following the Nove ...
who was killed in the later Paris attacks was a fan of hers and lauded her on Facebook. In March 2019, Dorothee Maquere – wife of
Fabien Clain Fabien Clain (30 January 1978, Toulouse, France – 20 February 2019, Al-Baghuz Fawqani, Syria) was a purported veteran jihadist terrorist loyal to the Islamic State. He had French nationality and was of Réunionnais origin. Personal backgro ...
 – claimed that Boumeddiene was killed in late February during the
Battle of Baghuz Fawqani The Battle of Baghuz Fawqani was an offensive by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), assisted by Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve (CJTF-OIR) airstrikes, artillery, and special forces personnel, that began on 9 February ...
. Maquere claimed that Boumeddiene was killed when an airstrike struck an
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant An Islamic state is a State (polity), state that has a form of government based on sharia, Islamic law (sharia). As a term, it has been used to describe various historical Polity, polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a t ...
safehouse containing various French jihadists. These claims were corroborated by other evacuees, however, they could not be confirmed. In March 2020, a French jihadist woman told a judge that she met Boumeddiene in October 2019 at the Al Howl camp; Boumeddiene was staying under a false identity and managed to escape. French intelligence services think that this piece of information is plausible.


French conviction and sentencing

On December 16, 2020, a French court convicted Boumeddiene in absentia of financing terrorism and belonging to a criminal terrorist network and sentenced her to 30 years in jail.


See also

* List of fugitives from justice who disappeared


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Boumeddienne, Hayat 1988 births 21st-century French criminals Algerian criminals Algerian Islamists French Islamists French people of Algerian descent Fugitives Fugitives wanted by France Possibly living people