Chiheb Esseghaier (1985-) was a Tunisian al-Qaeda member who was arrested (along with Raed Jaser) in 2013 for plotting to derail the Maple Leaf VIA Rail-Amtrak train in Ontario, Canada.
Biography[]
Chiheb Esseghaier was born in Tunisia in 1985, and he went to the Universite du Quebec in Canada for his doctorate; he was described as a disruptive and nightmarish neighbor. He had links to al-Qaeda-involved groups such as the PRMI terrorist group, which operated from the Pakistan-Iran border, and he became a radical Islamist. On 22 April 2013, he was arrested for plotting to blow up a VIA Rail Canada train with Raed Jaser, and he was also suspected of plotting to assassinate world leaders with a sniper rifle, to poison soldiers, and to blow up the Yellowstone caldera and make two-thirds of the United States uninhabitable. He was sentenced to life imprisonment for his crime.