In December 2000, an al-Qaeda-linked plot to bomb the Strasbourg Christmas market, at the feet of the Strasbourg Cathedral, on New Year's Eve was discovered. The plot was foiled by French and German police after a terrorist network based in Frankfurt, Germany, the "Frankfurt group", was unravelled. A total of fourteen people were convicted as part of the plot; four in Germany and ten in France, including the operational leader, Mohammed Bensakhria (a.k.a. "Meliani"), thought to be a European deputy to Osama bin Laden. The alleged mastermind of the plot was thought to have been Abu Doha, who was detained in the United Kingdom.