Preston court finds Walid Saadaoui and Amar Hussein guilty of preparing acts of terrorism.
Two men have been found guilty of plotting an ISIS-inspired gun attack on a mass gathering of British Jews in Manchester. Walid Saadaoui, 38, and Amar Hussein, 52, have been convicted at Preston Crown Court of plotting the sickening attack.
The jury in the trial of Walid Saadaoui and Amar Hussein, accused of plotting a gun attack on a mass gathering of Jews, has started its second of deliberations at Preston Crown Court. Main instigator Saadaoui aimed to smuggle four AK-47 assault rifles, two handguns and 900 rounds of ammunition into the UK in what police chiefs said could have been Britain’s deadliest terrorist incident. Months earlier the father-of-two, originally from Tunisia, paid a deposit for the weapons and believed he had arranged for their importation with a like-minded extremist but who in fact was the UCO, referred to in court as Farouk.
Walid Saadaoui, 38, and Amar Hussein, 52, have been convicted at Preston Crown Court (Image: Greater Manchester Police)
Saadaoui told Farouk he could independently obtain a firearm via Sweden and indicated he was looking to bring guns from eastern Europe. Separately he had bought an air weapon and had visited a shooting range. Counter-terrorism police intervened on the “strike day” of May 8 last year, with more than 200 officers involved, as Saadaoui was arrested at a hotel car park in Bolton when he went to collect some of the firearms, which had been deactivated.
Saadaoui came to the attention of the authorities when he used 10 Facebook accounts, none of which were in his own name, to spread a torrent of Islamic extremist views, as Farouk was deployed to gain his trust online and later in person. He used one of his fake accounts to join the Facebook group of the Jewish Representative Council of Greater Manchester which contained details of a “March Against Antisemitism” held in the city centre on January 21 last year which thousands attended.
Days later he told Farouk: “Here in Manchester, we have the biggest Jewish community. God willing we will degrade and humiliate them (in the worst way possible), and hit them where it hurts.”
Saadaoui recruited fellow IS sympathiser Hussein, a Kuwaiti national, who worked and lived at a furniture shop in Bolton, Greater Manchester, to assist his plans. The pair travelled to Dover, Kent, in March 2024 to conduct hostile reconnaissance on how a weapon could be smuggled through the port without detection.
Bilel Saadaoui was found guilty of failing to disclose information about acts of terrorism. (Image: Greater Manchester Police)
Saadaoui, of Abram, Wigan, and Hussein, of no fixed address, were convicted of preparing acts of terrorism between December 2023 and May 2024.
Saadaoui’s brother Bilel, 36, of Hindley, Wigan was found guilty of failing to disclose information about the plan. All three defendants will be sentenced on February 13.
Following the verdicts, Assistant Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police Robert Potts said: “What Walid Saadaoui was trying to achieve was a terrorist attack on the Jewish community that given the weaponry and ammunition involved could potentially have been the deadliest terrorist attack in UK history.
“Some of the things he said made it very clear that he regarded a less sophisticated attack with less lethal weaponry as not being good enough as he saw it was his duty to kill as many Jewish people as he could. That wasn’t going to be achieved via the use of a knife, or potentially a vehicle, as a weapon.
“There was very real risk and danger for Farouk who undoubtedly saved lives. I cannot overemphasise his courage, bravery and professionalism in the role that he played.
“It was intrinsic to our ability to continue to develop the investigation and allow Walid to continue with his plans up until the point, working with the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), we were satisfied that we had sufficient evidence to get the most significant charges authorised.”
