Hassan Ben Brik (Jihadi Militant, Tunisia)

• Full name: Hassan Ben Brik
• Pseudonym: N/a
• Alternatives: N/a
• Location: Tunisia fmr Iraq
• Affiliation: Brigade of Uqba Bin Nafa’a [KUIN], Partisans of Shariá in Tunisia [AST], fmr Organization of Monotheism and Jihad [JTwJ]

Hassan Ben Brik (º1978) is a Tunisian Islamist with a long history of involvement in militant activity. In 2001, he traveled to Syria to study Islamic jurisprudence.¹ During his stay, Ben Brik helped facilitate the travel of several Tunisian jihadis into Iraq.² By 2004, he had become a member of the Ahmed al-Khalayleh-led Organization of Monotheism and Jihad [JTwJ; Jama’at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad].³ Ben Brik reportedly stayed in the Iraqi city of Haditha for some time.⁴ In June 2005, he was arrested by the Syrian authorities who subsequently extradited him to Tunisia.⁵ A Tunis court gave Ben Brik a five-year-prison sentence for his jihadi activities in August 2005.⁶ After his release from prison, he earned a living as a trader.⁷

Following the 2011 Tunisian Revolution, Ben Brik joined the Partisans of Shari’a in Tunisia [AST; Ansar Achariaâ]. He became the leader of the movement’s committee for preaching.⁸ In that capacity, Ben Brik emerged as one of the AST’s most visible members. He appeared regularly in the Tunisian press. Ben Brik also acted as one of AST leader Seifallah Ben Hassine’s deputies.⁹ He was furthermore seen as one of the instigators of the Sep. 14, 2012 mob attack on the American embassy in Tunis.¹⁰

Ben Brik stayed in the country after the Tunisian authorities started to crack down on the movement in the summer of 2013. Security forces arrested him as he left a mosque in the Khadra suburb of Tunis on Sep. 23, 2012.¹¹ In November, Ben Brik went on a hunger strike.¹² The authorities released him in early January 2013.¹³ In the summer of 2014, Tunisian courts decided not to prosecute Ben Brik for terrorism.¹⁴

In October 2014, Ben Brik was again arrested when the authorities rolled up the jihadi media cell headed by Fatima el-Zouaghi. The module was affiliated with the AST and the Brigade of Uqba Bin Nafa’a [KUIN; Katibat Uqba Ibn Nafaâ].¹⁵ He was also caught transferring funds from Ben Hassine to families of imprisoned terrorists.¹⁶ Court proceedings against Ben Brik and his associates started in 2017.¹⁷