Willie Brigitte

Willie Virgile Brigitte (also known as Mohammed Abderrahman, born 10 October 1968 in Guadeloupe, France) is a convicted criminal, who was deported from Australia in 2003 for breaching the terms of his tourist visa and, upon arrival in France, was charged and convicted in Paris in 2007 for associating with criminals in relation to a terrorist enterprise, including a plot to damage the High Flux Australian Reactor and the Holsworthy Barracks, both located in Sydney, Australia. Brigitte served a custodial sentence of nine years in a French correctional facility, was released in 2009, but then rearrested in 2012.

Brigitte is a French convert to Islam who associated with al-Qaeda.

Background Brigitte was born on the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe, an overseas territory of France. He moved to Paris for his final year of schooling, but chose to join the navy instead of sitting for the baccalaureate. He served for three years, though deserted the military twice.

After returning to civilian life in 1993, he worked in a variety of jobs, and had stints as a butcher, social worker, printer, drug rehabilitation facilitator, teacher and warehouse worker. He read widely, including the Qur'an, and at the age of 30, in 1998, he decided to embrace Islam in full. Brigitte adopted several new names, including Mohammed Abderrahman, Mohammed Ibrahim Abderrahman, Abou Maimouna, Salahouddin, Jamal and 'Abderrahman the West Indian'. He attended an Islamic school in Yemen. Released in 2009, and then rearrested in 2012, in 2015 Brigitte was alleged to have links associated with the Charlie Hebdo shooting.

Personal life Brigitte's first marriage was to a Syrian Muslim woman, with whom he had one child. At the time, neither of them was particularly religious. They divorced in 1996. He married for a second time in 1999. The marriage resulted in two children. Melanie Brown and Willie Brigitte eventually also divorced. The couple had two children together, and the divorce was confirmed by Brigitte's lawyer in 2004, who stated that Brigitte's wife (Melanie Brown) had advised him of the divorce.