Two Britons jailed after giving cash to Brussels bombing suspect

Zakaria Boufassil and Mohammed Ali Ahmed secretly met Mohamed Abrini in a Birmingham park last year and handed him £3,000 in cash – months before a terror attack in the French capital killed 130 people.  A jury was told how Abrini was sent to collect the money by alleged Paris ringleader Abdelhamid Abaaoud.  Abrini then allegedly went on to help with the attacks on Brussels airport and a metro station which killed 32 people on 22 March this year. The 31-year-old Belgian national became known as the “man in the hat” after he was captured on CCTV with two suicide bombers at Zaventem airport.

Boufassil, 26, was given a three-year sentence with a year on licence after being found guilty of engaging in conduct in preparation of acts of terrorism by a jury at Kingston Crown Court in London.  Ahmed, 27, had pleaded guilty to the same charge at the start of the trial and received an eight-year sentence with an additional year on licence.

The judge in the case noted that Ahmed’s offending had also included engaging in physical training and researching “secure methods” to allow him and Boufassil’s sister, Soumaya, to travel to Syria “undetected”.

Soumaya Boufassil was initially charged on the same indictment as the two men but walked free from court last week after the Crown Prosecution Service offered no evidence against her.  Mr Justice Baker told Ahmed: “I am sure that you are an individual who has for some time and continues to hold extreme Islamist beliefs, and that you are committed to the cause of Islamic State.”

During the trial, prosecuting counsel Max Hill QC said “there can be no doubt that the money was handed over with the intention of assisting acts of terrorism”.

The cash had been withdrawn from the bank account of Anouar Haddouchi, another Belgian national, who had been living in the West Midlands and claiming housing benefit. He left the UK to join IS in Syria soon afterwards.  Part of the evidence in the case against Boufassil and Ahmed came from Belgian police interviews with Abrini after his arrest earlier this year.  As well as admitting that he had travelled to collect money in the UK, Abrini also confirmed he taken pictures of Manchester United’s ground at Old Trafford, as well as shopping centres and casinos around Birmingham.  But he denied any knowledge of planned terror attacks in Britain, suggesting this country was too well protected.

In police interview transcripts, he said: “I think England has a more developed secret service, better observation techniques. And it’s therefore more difficult to attack.”

Prosecutors said the case at Kingston Crown Court had provided insight into the multiple complex links that make up international terror cells and illustrated how those behind terrorist funding were just as culpable for the carnage that is caused.