A British court was the scene of revelations that jihadists accused of terrorist attacks in Paris and Brussels used British benefits payments to fund their horrific actions.
The Telegraph reported that Abdelhamid Abaaoud, who is accused of heading the terrorist attacks in Paris that left 130 people dead, sent Mohamed Abrini, who was known as the “man in the Hat” after the terrorist attack at the Brussels airport last March, to collect £3,000 by two men in Birmingham, England. Abrini traveled to Syria via Turkey in early 2015 after his brother, who belonged to ISIS, died. He claims that in Turkey, he met Abaaoud, who asked him to go to Birmingham.
Max Hill QC, prosecuting, stated Abrini spent three days in the West Midlands, then was told to go to a park in the Small Heath area of the city to meet his contacts.
Hill continued, “He waited for about ten minutes and the person arrived. The person told him to follow him while keeping a distance of around 10 to 15 metres. He did as he was told. They crossed the park and then walked outside the park and crossed a bridge which passes over a motorway. After the bridge they went into a little forest. There was second person in the forest and he had the money.”
Zakaria Bouffassil, 26, from Birmingham is accused of giving Abrini the cash, which had been withdrawn from the bank account of Anouar Haddouchi, a Belgian national, who had been claiming British benefit benefits while living in the West Midlands, Even after Haddouchi left for Syria in the summer of 2014 to fight with ISIS, thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ money was paid to him.
Hill added, “His TSB account at times contained some £7,000 or more. The figure fluctuated over time because benefits payments were still going into the account, even though Haddouchi had left the country.” He explained that the funds had been gradually withdrawn in cash sums on various dates between 30 May 2015 and 23 November 2015.
Mohamed Ali Ahmed was the other contact handing over the money; he has admitted doing so.
Hill said bluntly:
There is no doubt that the money was handed over with the intention of assisting acts of terrorism. The intention could not be more clear. Haddouchi had left the UK to fight for Daesh in Syria. Abrini came to collect the money in the UK. The destination would include Syria and specifically Daesh, either to Haddouchi himself or to other fighters. In other words the cash was handed over to Abrini with the intention of assisting others to commit acts of terrorism.
Last June, it was revealed that three women, Khadija Dawood, 30, Sugra Dawood, 34, and Zohra Dawood, 33, and their nine children, aged between three and 15, used thousands of pounds in Income Support and Child Tax Credits to join ISIS in Syria.