Baril, a mercenary leader used by Saudi Arabia to attack Qatar

Imran Abdullah - Al Jazeera Net

The leader of the French mercenary groups, Paul Barrell, is back in the spotlight to speak for the first time about a military invasion plan for Qatar, which has led a large group of mercenaries with direct support from the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain after the failed coup attempt in February. 1996.

The episode titled "Barrell .. Revealed Mask" comes to you tonight 10 pm Doha time.

Who is Barrell?
One of the first to have no idea that in the time of regular armies there would be no room for mercenaries to play big roles on the scene.

Before he was born, the Frenchman was born on April 13, 1946, and was the second most important officer of the French elite Genegg unit before he took part in the establishment of the Anti-Terror Unit at the Elysee Palace during the first term of Francois Mitterrand (1981-1988). But he was not satisfied with his official position. He served as a mercenary commander in several African and Middle Eastern countries, and even his influence reached Latin America.

Through his own security companies, Barill played a major role in the Rwandan civil war, which resulted in the death of a million people. He held arms deals and supplied mercenary groups and was not prosecuted.

Otaibi and Haram
The beginning was from Saudi Arabia. In the first hours of the fifteenth century, and specifically at the dawn of November 20, 1979, the Islamic world settled on a shocking scene almost two weeks after the end of the Hajj season.

And shed blood in the courtyard of the Grand Mosque in Mecca, when it was occupied by dozens of gunmen, headed by Juhaiman al-Otaibi and Mohammed Abdullah al-Qahtani, who claimed to be the "Mahdi".

When he was a young man (the island)

The gunmen - who came from 12 different countries - smuggled weapons into the mosque, closed its doors and fortified it, and detained tens of thousands of worshipers.

Through the minarets of the Haram, al-Otaibi gave a sermon broadcast by Arab and international radio stations, including accusations of the ruling family and criticism of society. He called on the people of Mecca and the government forces that surround the Haram to "repent and join them and pledge allegiance to the Mahdi."

After the closure of the Haram al-Haram, the Saudi authorities were able to issue a fatwa from the senior scholars to use force against the movement of al-Otaibi and his followers and to reopen the mosque to worshipers and pilgrims.

On December 4, 1979, the attack on the holed militants began. The hostages were liberated and dozens of them were killed. The rest were executed, including al-'Utaibi.

The Saudi forces were not alone in the face of the militants. They asked for help from the French authorities, which sent three officers of the elite French Gendarmerie led by Captain Barrel aboard a small plane carrying large quantities of gas and protective masks, Lead.

The French people at the Taif hotel were completely secretive and trained Saudi forces to use gas and protect themselves. Paris asked members of the French team to rein in their ardent leader, Baril.

However, under the supervision of the French captain, the besieged forces of the Haram throw hand grenades to work to dig gas to pump, and gas gorge role in resolving the battle and the surrender of militants, especially with the depletion of ammunition and lack of food.

After the success of the operation, the officers returned to France with golden gifts from the Saudi authorities, and the death toll between the parties to 170 at least, and the clashes caused great destruction to the campus.

"He arrested 115 people from the sanctuary, took part in forcing 61 militants to surrender, neutralized 17 armed men without the use of weapons and released more than 450 hostages."

Counterfeit terrorism
The issue of the "Irish of Vincen" raised a major political scandal in France during the Mitterrand era. In the wake of a 1982 terrorist attack in Paris, the secret anti-terrorism unit, which Parill helped establish, arrested three Irish citizens in Vincennes, a suburb of eastern Paris, for alleged links to the Irish Liberation Army and possession of weapons and explosives.

The authorities then declared a "victory" against "international terrorism", but the authorities quickly cleared the detainees. It was revealed that the weapons and evidence used against them had been planted by French officers who lied to the court with the support of the executive authorities.

On October 31, 1985, the Le Monde newspaper published an article alleging that Barrell had fabricated the evidence of the fraudulent Irish case. He added that he had placed explosives and pistols in the three Irish apartment, but Barrell denied the charge and sued the French newspaper.

More than one million Rwandans killed in 100 days (European-archive)

Later, Barrell lost his case against Le Monde, and the court found that the allegations published by the newspaper were true or grounded, then suspended judicial proceedings against Barrell, and closed the file.

After this case, Barrell set up Epson in Paris. A security company named "Secret" has been established to provide security services abroad.

The name of Barrell was also linked to the wiretapping scandal at the presidential palace, and although rumors indicate that Barrell was convicted, his police record was clean and no conviction was shown.

Barrell also accused Paris of the end of 2007 of money laundering in the Concorde Games case and was jailed for two months and then released.

One million people killed
Barrell, who intervened in Cameroon and Ivory Coast in 1988 after his independence from France, served as an adviser to the president of Rwanda and signed a contract to sell firearms and grenades for more than $ 3 million. But government intervention prevented two-thirds of the deal from being completed, .

In 1994, following the outbreak of genocide against Tutsis. Baril Private Limited reached an agreement with the interim government of Rwanda to provide military assistance at a time when the United Nations imposed an international embargo on the country during the civil war.

On April 6, 1994, a deadly attack took place against the plane of Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana. The attack was seen as the spark that led to the genocide in Rwanda, and much controversy is taking place with the participation of Barrell in this process, with the aim of igniting war and selling arms to Hutu fighters and the Tutsi genocide.

On 27 June 2013, the Office of the Prosecutor of Paris took steps to open proceedings against Barrell on charges of complicity in genocide and crimes against humanity in Rwanda.

Three human rights organizations filed the complaint, which forms the basis for the opening of legal investigations, and the complaint explicitly addresses the 1994 military assistance contract between the private company Barrell and the Rwandese Government.

In early 2014, the examining magistrate had all the necessary documents for the proceedings. Most of the evidence came from the Counter-Terrorism Division, whose personnel were working almost exclusively on the attack on 6 April 1994.

Barrell was interviewed on four occasions, but his testimony bore many contradictions. However, the actual trial itself has not officially opened.

Who killed Litvinenko?
In a strange television interview, Barrell claimed he had evidence that Alexander Litvinenko, the Russian spy who died of polonium poisoning, was not killed by Russian hands but by a conspiracy from America and Britain.

"Russia has nothing to do with the killing of Litvinenko," Barrell said in a rare television recording, adding that the aim of the whole operation was to discredit Putin and his intelligence apparatus as a punishment for Moscow's stand against interests. America in the world, especially Syria. "

During the interview, Barrell admitted that he "served as a consultant to a number of presidents in Latin America, Africa and Arab countries."

Did he play a role in the Gulf crisis?
In a report to the French newspaper Liberation in January 1996, a French officer was reported to have intervened and formed a group of mercenaries to overthrow the Emir of Qatar in the same year, and this group was led by Captain Barrell.

The newspaper said that Baril founded his headquarters in Ain Al Ain in Abu Dhabi, and rumors were circulating that he trained 52 people in the border area between Chad and the Central African Republic to change the regime in the Gulf state. Although Liberation dismissed a "military adventure," it considered that the Barill Group could be a Saudi nuisance or stick that could be used against Doha.

The night of the capture of Barrell
In mid-2014, Barrell ended a mysterious sit-in at his home and handed himself over to the police. He did not give much details about the nature of the negotiations that took place with the force that surrounded his house while he was armed inside.

His lawyer, Sophie Juncke, who was present, told Agence France-Presse that her client had gone through difficult conditions and was suffering from health problems, which called for an emergency call that saw the presence of weapons in the house and called the police.

After this incident, Barrell, a 72-year-old man with thyroid cancer and Parkinson's disease, missed the scene for a long time to go out with his colleague Tamer Al-Sahal in the program to reveal what he had in mind about the plan to invade Qatar.