Chief suspect in Paris terror attacks Mohamed Abrini ‘got £3,000 UK benefits cash from two men in a Birmingham park’

A CHIEF suspect in the Paris and Brussels terror attacks picked up £3,000 of UK benefits cash during a secret meeting in Birmingham months before the atrocities, a court heard.

Mohamed Abrini — also said to be the “man in the hat” who fled this year’s Brussels Airport bomb — received the cash in a park after slipping into the country in July last year.

Zakaria Boufassil, 26, who lives in the Small Heath area of the city, is accused of handing over the   money.

Kingston crown court in South West London was told Abrini is not a defendant in the case.
He is charged in Belgium over the airport and Metro blasts that killed 32 in March, and is wanted in Paris over the November 2015 terror deaths of 130 people.

But the jury heard Abrini, 31, visited Britain between July 9 and July 16 last year.

He visited four casinos in London, Birmingham and Manchester, and collected the £3,000.

The money had been withdrawn from the account of Brit jihadi Anouar Haddouchi who left for Syria in 2014.

The court heard Haddouchi had been claiming benefits while living in the West Midlands with his wife, and thousands of pounds of taxpayers' cash continued to be paid into his account even after he went to fight for ISIS, also known as Daesh.

Prosecutor Max Hill said: “There can be no doubt the money was handed over with the intention of assisting acts of terrorism.”

He went on: “The intention could not be more clear. Haddouchi had left the UK to fight for Daesh in Syria. Abrini came to collect the money in the UK.

“The destination would include Syria and specifically Daesh, either to Haddouchi himself or to other fighters.

"In other words the cash was handed over to Abrini with the intention of assisting others to commit acts of terrorism.”

Boufassil denies preparing acts of terrorism. A second man, Mohammed Ali Ahmed, has pleaded guilty to the same offence.

The trial continues.