Taking us to court: the wife of gunmen’s UK fixer
THE wife of an Al Qaeda recruiter who mentored the Charlie Hebdo murderers is appealing against her own terror conviction on human rights grounds, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.
In a case that has already cost UK taxpayers tens of thousands of pounds, Sylvie Beghal, 45, who lives on benefits in Leicester, is seeking to overturn her conviction for refusing to co-operate with British police who were investigating her husband.
Djamel Beghal, 50, a former disciple of the hate clerics Abu Hamza and Abu Qatada, is known to have met with at least two of the gunmen who terrorised Paris last week – and hosted on-the-run suspect Hayat Boumeddiene for ‘crossbow practice’ while he was under house arrest in France.
French citizen Mrs Beghal and the couple’s four children still live in Leicester where she is awaiting judgment on her case after taking her appeal all the way to the Supreme Court.
Three years ago she was arrested and charged after being stopped at a British airport, where she refused to answer questions about her husband, who is in prison in France facing charges of leading a terrorist organisation.
She pleaded guilty to at least one charge related to terror laws but later appealed against the conviction on human rights grounds. Her case, being supported by pressure group Cage and the Muslim Council of Britain, is understood to have been brought using legal aid as it proceeded through the High Court, Appeal Court and Supreme Court.
Beghal, a French citizen born in Algeria, lived in Britain during the late 1990s where he was a regular at Finsbury Park Mosque and came under the influence of Abu Hamza and Abu Qatada. But he later moved with his family to Afghanistan – allegedly because he was inspired by Qatada – was arrested as a suspected terrorist just weeks before the 9/11 attacks and subsequently convicted in France for his links to Al Qaeda in 2005.
After serving half of a ten-year sentence, the French government were attempting to deport him to Algeria when he was rearrested in 2010 on fresh charges.
But he came under fresh scrutiny last week as it emerged that Cherif Kouachi, one of the gunmen in the Charlie Hebdo attack; Amedy Coulibaly, who was killed after taking hostages in a grocery store; and his girlfriend Boumeddiene, who is still on the run, had all visited him in
‘These powers are vital to our national interest’
Murat, central France, while he was under house arrest. When questioned later by police, Boumeddiene, photographed posing with weapons in a burqa, said she and her husband had visited the convicted terrorist for ‘crossbow practice’. Officers also photographed Beghal playing football with Kouachi in 2010.
In Britain, Mrs Beghal’s case is seen as a key test of the legitimacy of Schedule 7 powers under the Ter- rorism Act 2000, which allow police to stop, examine and search passengers at ports, airports and international rail terminals.
On January 4, 2011, following a visit to her husband in France, Mrs Beghal returned to Britain with three of her children, arriving at East Midlands Airport, at 8.05pm and was detained by officers from Leicestershire police under the Schedule 7 powers. She was told she was not under arrest and the police did not suspect her of being a terrorist but they needed to speak to her ‘to establish if she may be a person concerned in the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism’.
She was asked about her relationship with her husband, how she had paid for her flight to Paris and whether anyone else had paid for it but refused to answer.
She was charged with assaulting a police officer, wilfully obstructing a search under Schedule 7, and wilfully failing to comply with a duty under Schedule 7. The prosecution offered no evidence on the first two charges when she pleaded guilty to the last charge.
In a Court of Appeal judgment seen by The Mail on Sunday, Lord Justice Gross said ‘inhibiting’ the travel of terrorists served ‘a manifestly rational purpose’ and ‘the ability to question widely’ was necessary.
‘Given that Mrs Beghal was returning to the UK following a visit to her husband, imprisoned in France for terrorism offences, the obvious inference is that she was not stopped on a random basis,’ he said.
Last night, Lord Carlile, the former counter-terrorism adviser to the Government, said: ‘Schedule 7 powers are absolutely essential. It would be extremely damaging to the national interest if they ceased to exist.’
Mrs Berghal lives with her four children in a smart house next to a park in Leicester. She issued a statement via Cage, saying: ‘Once again my husband is punished for something he didn’t do. We just want to be left alone and live a peaceful life.’