One of the most wanted international criminals, who is also being sought by the authorities of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), has been in the hands of Greek authorities since May 9th after being located and arrested in Heraklion on the island of Crete. The person in question is Lionel Dumont.
A red notice had been issued by Interpol BiH for this 54-year-old due to an armed robbery and murder in 1996 in Zenica.
At the time of his arrest, he had a total of 29 different identities and three different nationalities. About a week ago, confidential information emerged that Dumont was on Greek soil, specifically in Crete, accompanied by his wife.
Dumont was arrested following a coordinated operation by officers from the Subdirectorate for Criminal Investigation in Heraklion and the Airport Police Department, where he was found during an identity check.
Lionel Dumont’s criminal career began in the 1990s, and his most serious criminal offense was a robbery in 1996 during which he committed a murder. After being arrested in 1997, he was sentenced to 20 years in prison, but on May 26th, 1999, he managed to escape from the Sarajevo prison. It is suspected that he fled to Japan at that time, and then traveled the world.
For several years, he managed to remain at large until 2004, when he was found in France and returned to prison. In 2007, he was again sentenced to 25 years in prison, but once more managed to escape and disappear.
According to information from Greek police, during his time on the run he used at least 29 different identities and triple citizenship, alternately presenting himself as French, Italian, and Tunisian.
He used names such as Bilal, Abou, Gerald, Jacques, Antonio, and surnames like Kymkal, Dimon, Hamza, Di Carlo, and possessed fake travel documents from various countries.
What ties Dumont to BiH is his stay in BiH during the aggression against our country. According to BiH media, he entered BiH through Croatian intelligence structures and fought in a group of mujahideen.
His “biography” also notes that he was accused of participating in the Roubaix gang that unsuccessfully tried to plant a car bomb during the G7 summit in Lille in March 1996.
Dumont grew up in a traditional Christian family and attended journalism school hoping to become a journalist. He left the history department in 1992 and joined the French army. He volunteered for a peacekeeping mission in Somalia, but upon returning, realized he could not adapt to civilian life. He converted to Islam, adopted the name Abu Hamza, and joined the war in BiH in a group of mujahideen who arrived in BiH through mysterious channels.
After the war, Dumont was sentenced to 20 years in prison for murder. He escaped from the Sarajevo prison where he had been held and fled to Japan, where he lived quietly for several years, using a fake passport to enter and leave the country. He was arrested in Germany when the police intercepted a package sent to his girlfriend. In one of them, fake passports with his photograph were found. Dumont was extradited to France, where he was convicted in absentia for participating in a series of robberies and violent crimes, and upon appeal, was sentenced to 25 years in prison, Klix.ba writes.
