Reda Seyam
Reda Seyam, also known as Ghana Prakesh or Gnanavel, was a German-Turkish Islamic militant and an official in the Islamic State. He has been described as a 'veteran of jihad' and is the highest ranking German member of the Islamic State.
Background
Reda Seyam was born in 1959 or 1960 in Egypt. He joined the Bosnian mujahideen in 1994, fighting in the Bosnian War. He later moved to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in 1998.Seyam is suspected of playing a role in financing the 2002 Bali bombings. He was arrested in Indonesia and interrogated by the Central Intelligence Agency at a black site before being extradited to Germany in 2003, where he became an influential figure in the Salafi movement.
Islamic State
On August 19, 2013, it was reported that Seyam was active in Syria. Presently he is said to be the "emir for education" in Nineveh Governorate, Iraq, where he is responsible for "education reform" in the region. He has appeared in a video titled "Education in the Shade of the Caliphate" and in pictures taken inside Mosul University.According to a study by Jean-Charles Brisard and Kevin Jacksom, he was at one point deputy to the Islamic State governor in Aleppo province in Syria.