THAT’S MY DAUGHTER!
Father of jihadi girl had no idea about her terror links . . . then saw her mugshot on television
THE devastated father of France’s most wanted woman handed himself in to police, declaring, ‘That is my daughter’, it was revealed last night. Mohamed Boumeddiene went to the authorities just hours after seeing his daughter Hayat’s mugshot on television – released following her husband’s murder of a policewoman and later four hostages in a Parisian deli.
Mr Boumeddiene is said to be shocked and heartbroken by his daughter’s alleged involvement in the terror siege. She is thought to have fled France and made her way to Syria.
Neighbours say he has since locked himself in his flat, disconnected his phone and has been heard crying and saying: ‘I don’t know if she is dead or alive.’
A friend said: ‘He went to the mosque on Friday to pray and then took himself to the police
‘Don’t know where she is’
station after he saw her picture on the television.’ Mr Boumeddiene, a delivery driver, is understood to have told police he had no idea what his daughter was planning and was ‘shocked’. He was questioned but not arrested.
Police described Hayat, 26, who has reportedly received terror training, as ‘ armed and dangerous’.
Her husband Amedy Coulibaly, 32, was part of the same terror cell as the Kouachi brothers – Cherif, 32, and Said, 34 – who killed 12 at the Charlie Hebdo magazine offices.
Boumeddiene is believed to have been involved in the planning of the co-ordinated attacks, after phone records revealed she had exchanged more than 500 calls with Cherif ’s wife Izzana last year. There were suggestions she had also helped the men gather weapons.
As police revealed she may now be in Syria with Islamic State fighters, friends and neighbours shed light on her troubled but devout child- hood. Last night, a neighbour who has known the family for more than 20 years, described Mr Boumeddiene’s shock after the photo of Hayat was flashed around the world.
Although estranged for many years, they were said to have had a reconciliation recently. He picked her up from the airport when she returned from a pilgrimage to Mecca last year.
‘Her father has been crying and saying, “I don’t know where she is, I don’t know if my daughter is dead or alive,” said the woman.
‘Her mother wore a head scarf. She was very religious … a proper Mus- lim woman. She stayed at home and made bread. [Hayat] left 17 or 18 years ago when her mum died … Her father saw her sometimes but she did not visit after he remarried.
‘The new wife is very different – she doesn’t wear a head scarf, she works in a retirement home.’
The neighbour, who did not want to be named, said she believed Hayat’s husband was the driving force, adding: ‘She left here with that man. He did everything and then it all came down on her. He was the mastermind.’
A friend who goes to the same Al Islah mosque as Mr Boumeddiene said he had not attended the mosque since his daughter’s links to the terror plot were revealed.
Born in Villiers-sur-Marne, a suburb nine miles east of Paris, Boumeddiene grew up in a small flat in a run-down part of the town – where her father still lives.
Her mother died suddenly when she was six. It is understood her father struggled to cope after his wife’s death and the younger of his seven children, including Hayat, were taken into care.
She is believed to have met Coulibaly in Juvisy-sur-Orge, south-east of Paris, while working as a cashier. He first came to the attention of police as a teenager and was later convicted of a string of drug and theft offences.
The couple lived in a flat in Bagneux, a poor suburb of Paris, where neighbours this week described them as ‘quiet and normal’. They said they enjoyed holidays together, and were pictured embracing on a beach, Boumeddiene in a bikini.
Coulibaly is said to have met Cherif Kouachi between 2005 and 2006 while in Fleury-Merogis prison, south of Paris. Meanwhile, Boumeddiene became more devout, wearing traditional Islamic dress. She reportedly lost her job because she refused to take off her veil.
The couple married in a religious ceremony in 2009, though this is not legally recognised.
When Boumeddiene was interviewed in 2010 by counter-terrorism officers over Coulibaly’s involvement in a bid to free bomber Smain Ait Ali Belkacem from jail, she refused to condemn Al-Qaeda attacks.
It was initially thought she was at the Jewish deli attack. But police said she was seen by Turkish authorities crossing into Syria on January 8, the day Coulibaly killed a trainee policewoman.
Cherif Kouachi’s wife was released from police custody yesterday, after being arrested in connection with his attacks. She released a statement condemning the atrocities, claiming she had no idea of his plans.