In September, RTL published an interview with alleged jihadist Steve Duarte. In 2014, Asselborn spoke of six people suspected to have left Luxembourg for Syria. While researching Duarte's case, RTL came across the names of other individuals thought to be jihadists in Syria or Iraq.
One of these, a young man nicknamed "Luxembourgish brother" who, according to RTL's reports, attended primary school in Bertrange and left to join the insurgents in 2013 at the age of 22.
The information was revealed at the trial of Jean-Louis Denis, a Belgian who recruited fighters for the jihad. Denis was sentenced to five years in prison for participating in a terrorist organisation. He served his sentence and has since regained his freedom. These documents were made available to RTL by a Belgian colleague and journalist at Het Last Newsblad .
Denis had regular contact with foreigners who wanted to go to Syria from Europe. The documents showed how people were recruited in Luxembourg. The young man from Bertrange, who was a French national, and another jihadist Davide De Angelis, who was arrested in Canach in July 2014 and extradited to Spain, continued their radicalisation in Brussels. The 22-year-old, who had grown up in Luxembourg, was undergoing further training in the Belgian capital. In a letter he left to his parents, he explained he had met "brothers" who convinced him to go to Syria.
He travelled to Syria from Brussels via Turkey in early 2013 to join the al-Nusra front, a Salafist terrorist group, which was already active in Syria before the emergence of ISIS.
His parents, who are still living in Luxembourg, were informed of the death of their son in May 2013.
Although the authorities believe him to have died in May 2013 in Aleppo, there was no proof of his death. Due to this, he was sentenced in absentia to 10 years imprisonment under French law, according to information from the Terrorism Analysis Centre.
