Investigators believe that Lionel Dumont - a French citizen of Algerian descent - used a fake passport to enter Japan in July 2002 and stayed here until he left for Malaysia in September 2003, Kyodo News agency reported, citing unidentified investigative sources.
The report said Dumont provided money and equipment to the network.
Dumont, 33, was in contact with about 10 other foreign residents of Japan and investigators suspect he may have been trying to set up a terror cell, the report said.
Another example is Lionel Dumont from Roubaix, a gloomy industrial town in northern France. He converted to Islam at a young age, and then spent his military service with the French army in Somalia where he witnessed the suffering of the local Muslim population. During the war in the former Yugoslavia he went to Bosnia and joined the Taqfir wal Hijra faction of the mujahedeen. After the war he returned to France, where he formed the notorious "Gang of Roubaix" which largely consisted of French North Africans. They staged a number of terrorist attacks. The police tried to arrest him but he escaped to Bosnia where he also staged a number of violent attacks. He was put in prison but escaped in 1999. His whereabouts are unknown. He may have visited an al-Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan.
