Hassan Jandoubi
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Hassan Jandoubi was a French national (born 1 March 1966, Toulouse - 21 September 2001, Toulouse) of Tunisian parents, who died on 21 September 2001, in the AZF chemical factory explosion in Toulouse in south-western France. He was subsequently investigated by French anti-terrorist authorities as the prime suspect in the blast.[1] An official enquiry later determined the blast was accidental, and not a result of Jandoubi's actions.[2]
Jandoubi had been known to French police as the suspected ringleader of a gang trafficking stolen cars between France and Germany. He became an active member of a mosque in the Toulouse suburbs where he was "initiated to fundamentalism".[3]
He was known by locals and police to be part of a gang seen celebrating the September 11 terror attacks, however, at the time of his death his name wasn't included on lists of fundamental terrorist suspects maintained by Interpol, the French intelligence service or the counter-espionage agency DST.[3]
Jandoubi was hired to unload ammonium nitrate at the AZF plant by a subcontractor five days before the explosion. He was already known to local police for possible Islamic fundamentalist sympathies and was involved in several angry altercations before the blast with co-workers who were displaying the U.S. flag in sympathy with victims of the September 11 attacks.[1]
