Facing jail, jihadis who gave £3,000 benefit cash to ‘Man in Hat’ suspect
Ahmed pleaded guilty ‘Man in the Hat’ Abrini in CCTV footage at Brussels airport before the suicide attack. He is also linked to the Paris atrocities A CANNABIS-SMOKING jihadist who handed £3,000 in overpaid housing benefits to a Brussels terror suspect was facing jail last night.
A jury found Zakaria Boufassil, 26, guilty of preparing a terrorist act by giving Mohamed Abrini the money at a park in Birmingham.
Another man, Mohammed Ali Ahmed, 27, had already pleaded guilty to the same offence by assisting Boufassil.
Abrini, 31, became known as the “Man in the Hat” after CCTV was released of him at Brussels airport following the suicide attack in March.
He is also a suspect for the Paris terror attacks which left 130 dead in November last year.
The money came from £5,413.06 housing benefit wrongly paid by Birmingham City Council into the account of a jihadist who was fighting for Islamic State in Syria.
Using a debit card, Ahmed withdrew the cash before he and Boufassil met Abrini in the park in Small Heath, Birmingham, in July last year. Boufassil claimed he had no idea what was going on and had gone to the park to smoke cannabis. “I am there on an almost daily basis to smoke on my own or with my friends,” he told London’s Kingston Crown Court. Belgian national Boufassil, who is of Moroccan descent, said he and fellow Sufi Muslims were hated by IS. “We believe in universal love and peace with everyone,” he told the jury. “They think we are nonbelievers. If they ever did find a Sufi, they would kill them. We cannot call them Muslims. They spread horror in the world.”
Jurors were told he had at least three phones and 22 SIM cards to contact his terror cell.
Days later Abrini toured Manchester United’s Old Trafford stadium and took 30 pictures, the jury was told.
Counter-terrorism experts believe it is possible a stadium attack was being considered.
Boufassil and Ahmed sentenced next week. will be