Two men have been found guilty of plotting to “kill as many Jewish people as they could”, in what detectives believe would have been the UK’s worst terror attack if it hadn’t been thwarted.
Walid Saadaoui, 38, and Amar Hussein, 52, have been found guilty at Preston crown court of preparing acts of terrorism between 13 December 2023 and 9 May 2024. Jurors were told they were Islamist extremists with a “visceral dislike” of Jewish people who planned a marauding attack in Greater Manchester.
The pair arranged for the purchase and delivery of AK-47 semi-automatic rifles, conducted reconnaissance and identified targets. But the man supplying them with the weapons was an undercover operative.
The operative, known to them as Farouk, had infiltrated jihadist social media networks and convinced the prime mover in the plot, Saadaoui, that he was a fellow extremist.
Saadaoui was arrested in a police sting as he attempted to take possession of two assault rifles, a semi-automatic pistol and almost 200 rounds of ammunition at the car park of the Last Drop hotel in Bolton on 8 May 2024.
The weapons were of the type used in Paris in 2015 when approximately 130 people were killed and hundreds of people injured in a terrorist attack.
A third defendant, Walid’s brother Bilel Saadaoui, 36, was found guilty of failing to disclose information about acts of terrorism on the same dates.
Walid Saadaoui, of Abram, Wigan, Bilel Saadaoui, of Hindley, Wigan, and Hussein, of no fixed abode, denied the allegations in a trial lasting almost three months at Preston crown court.
The Saadaoui brothers, who are originally from Tunisia and had been living in the UK for several years legally, swore allegiance to Islamic State before coming to the UK, while Hussein, who had also sworn allegiance to Islamic State, had served in Saddam Hussein’s army.
After his arrest, Hussein told police: “Your government … your prime minister sent to Israel weapon to kill our children.”
