‘Second jihadi visited Ireland’ claim probed
Knifeman ‘travelled to Dublin and Limerick’
GARDAI are to investigate claims made by an Irish Muslim convert that a second jihadi terrorist involved in the London Bridge atrocity visited Ireland on a number of occasions.
The woman, known as Sister Aaliya, was contacted by gardai last Friday within hours of telling a press conference that Khumar Butt (27), the suspected ringleader of the gang, visited Limerick and Dublin in the past two years.
Shaykh Umar Al-Qadri, of the Irish Muslim Peace and Integration Council, which organised the press conference for Sister Aaliya, confirmed yesterday that detectives were arranging to take a formal statement from her.
Security sources said gardai would try to corroborate the woman’s claims but said that so far, detectives had no evidence that Butt was here.
Detectives are concentrating their inquiries on another member of the gang, Rachid Redouane, a Moroccan pastry chef who lived at two addresses in Dublin before he moved to London in September 2015.
Redouane was not known to the Garda’s Counter Terrorism Unit. Security sources believe he was radicalised in London, adding that no evidence had yet surfaced to link him to extremism while he was in Dublin,
The Sunday Independent has learned that gardai have uncovered a wide-scale immigration scam involving identity cards, work permits and visas being traded on the black market for large sums.
A separate operation to identify and apprehend the suspects behind the scam is being carried out by the Garda National Immigration Bureau.
Sister Aaliya (26), who asked not to identified for security reasons, claimed she was radicalised in London and was drawn into a network of extremists. She said she was “de-radicalised” by an imam in the Barking area of London and returned to Ireland last October.