Midland terrorists ‘funding atrocities’ with UK state benefits
TERRORISTS in Birmingham are using state benefits to fund atrocities abroad, a Government watchdog has warned.
Calls have also been made for new systems to monitor housing benefit payments paid to people who may disappear abroad.
Zakaria Boufassil, 26, from Small Heath, was found guilty last week of engaging in conduct in preparation of acts of terrorism.
Kingston Crown Court heard he gave £3,000 in cash to Belgian bombing suspect Mohamed Abrini, raised through £5,400 in overpaid housing benefits.
He handed over the cash to Abrini in Small Heath Park on July 11, 2015, months before the terror Belgian airport and Metro attacks which killed 32 people.
Mohamed Ali Ahmed, who is also from Small Heath, had previously admitted the same charge and both men will be sentenced next week.
But Boufassil is not the only benefit-seeking Birmingham resident who has been linked to terrorism.
Irfan Naseer, a bomb-making terrorist nicknamed Chubb, was also claiming benefits when he was jailed for plotting a devastating attack on the UK.
Naseer was born and raised in Birmingham and had gained a 2:2 degree in pharmacy from Aston University in 2003. He was jailed for life for in 2013 for planning terrorism whilst on benefits.
Sally Jones, infamously dubbed the “white widow” and married to Birmingham-born Islamic State hacker Junaid Hussain, had spent a lifetime on benefits. Hussain, 21, from Kings Heath, was blown up in a drone attack in Syria in August 2015.
The mother-of-two, originally from Kent, has been named as one of the world’s most wanted terrorists by the UN.
Lord Carlile of Berriew, the former independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, has now called on the Government to put in place a system to monitor housing benefit paid to people when they leave the country.
“Several hundred thousand pounds in small remittances have been used to fund terrorism in one way or another,” he said.
“Such activity has increased during the rise of ISIS. Certainly, the Government should ensure that there is more triage available when housing benefits recipients are known to have gone to another country.”