Ali Bounjoua holds a Master’s degree in Criminal Law from the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), obtained in 2020 with high distinction. His Master’s thesis focused on the role of international judicial cooperation in criminal matters in relation to the issue of foreign terrorist fighters. For this work, he received the Faculty of Law and Criminology’s award for the Best Master’s Thesis in Civil and Criminal Law.

Following this, he began his doctoral research at the Centre for European Law, funded by a mini-ARC grant from ULB. His PhD, conducted under the co-supervision of Anne Weyembergh (Professor and Vice-Rector for International Relations at ULB) and Julien Jeandesboz (Professor at ULB), examines the repatriation of European jihadists detained in Syria and Iraq.

Affiliated as a researcher with the Institute for European Studies (IEE), he is also an associate member of the Centre for Research in Criminal Law (CRDP) at ULB.

Since 1 October 2024, he has additionally served as a trainee magistrate within the Brussels judicial district.

In 2025, he obtained the title of Doctor of Laws after the successful defence of his doctoral dissertation entitled “The continued detention of European jihadists in Syria and Iraq in light of international and European law.”

He is currently appointed as a teaching assistant at the Faculty of Law and Criminology, where he teaches the Master-level course on European and International Criminal Law.

His research focuses primarily on terrorism in international criminal law, European criminal law, and comparative criminal law.

Email: ali.bounjoua@ulb.be