This article is from the source 'independent' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/zakaria-bouffassil-mohamed-abrini-british-man-guilty-of-funding-brussels-and-paris-terror-suspect-a7458711.html
The article has changed 5 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
| Version 1 | Version 2 |
|---|---|
| British man guilty of funding Brussels and Paris terror suspect in Birmingham park | British man guilty of funding Brussels and Paris terror suspect in Birmingham park |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| A British man has been found guilty of giving £3,000 to a key suspect in the Brussels and Paris terror attacks. | A British man has been found guilty of giving £3,000 to a key suspect in the Brussels and Paris terror attacks. |
| Zakaria Boufassil handed cash to Mohamed Abrini, the so-called "the man in the hat", after he was caught on CCTV at Brussels airport moments before the catestrophic bombing. | |
| Testifying at Kingston Crown Court in London last week, the 26-year-old admitted meeting Abrini in a Birmingham park and to holding money for his conspirator Mohamed Ali Ahmed. | Testifying at Kingston Crown Court in London last week, the 26-year-old admitted meeting Abrini in a Birmingham park and to holding money for his conspirator Mohamed Ali Ahmed. |
| Boufassil, from Birmingham, claimed he had "no idea" of its intended use, but prosecutor Max Hill QC said there was "no doubt" he passed over the cash for assisting terrorism. | |
| "The intention could not be more clear," said Mr Hill. | "The intention could not be more clear," said Mr Hill. |
| The Isis-claimed Brussels bombings on March 22 this year, at the airport in Zaventem and at Maalbeek metro station in central Brussels, killed 32 civilians and the three Islamist terrorists. | |
| Abrini, is suspected of being the man pictured wearing a white coat and black hat, and pushing a trolly laden with explosives, in the airport alongside Najim Laachraoui and Ibrahim el-Bakraoui. | |
| The 31-year-old, who was arrested in April this year, is also suspected of acting as the driver for chief Paris attacks suspect Salah Abdeslam, before the devastating bombings that killed 130 people. | |
| But Abrini, a former bakery worker and petty criminal, admits he first visited a series of casinos in Birmingham and Manchester in July 2015. | |
| It was in the Birmingham park that he collected the cash from Boufassil and Ahmed, but has told police the sum was "too small" for terrorism. | |
| "To carry out attacks you need lots of money," Abrini said, according to interview transcripts. | |
| Ahmed, also from Birmingham, pleaded guilty to handing over the money last month, and Boufassil said his accomplice had taken "advantage of my naivety". | |
| Speaking in French through a translator, Boufassil said: "He never told me that the person who was coming to get the money was a bad person. | |
| "Had I known it, I would never have kept the moeny." | |
| As a follower of Sufism, a mystic Islamic order that is viewed as heretical by hardline militant groups, Boufassil condemned the Islamic State group. | |
| “For me, those people are worse than animals,” he said. | |
| Boufassil, who also admitted to being a regular cannabis user, struggled to remember dates and times in cross-examination. | |
| A jury of six men and six women at south-west London's Kingston Crown Court found Boufassil guilty of engaging in conduct in preparation of acts of terrorism. | |
| More follows | More follows |