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Top Al Qaida Member Linked to Child Abduction Plot

By Emily Dennis, PA

A leading member of al Qaida got money for a plot to bomb the US embassy in Paris while helping to abduct five children from this country, a court heard today.

Djamel Beghal, 39, was described as being a key member of an “extreme and puritanical group” financed by Osama Bin Laden, Norwich Crown Court heard.

He is one of a group accused of conspiring to abduct five children from their home in the city to Libya five years ago.

Beghal, an Algerian, was sentenced to 10 years in prison earlier this year for associating with a terrorist organisation.

A statement from him in prison was read in court today on behalf of the Crown.

In it he admitted making reservations for the ferry crossing to take the children by Hoverspeed from Dover to Calais.

However, he said he thought he was taking the youngsters to Disneyland, Paris, and did not realise they were being kidnapped.

The children were snatched from their mother Anita Elgirnazi, 36, on June 10 2000.

The prosecution alleges that their Libyan father Azzedin Journazi devised a plan to take them and recruited seven people including Beghal to help.

At the time Rumaysa Elgirnazi was 11, Safiya Elgirnazi, nine, Ali Elgirnazi, seven, Hamza Elgirnazi, four, Aisha Elgirnazi, two.

It is claimed they were taken out of Dover through France and Spain.

Mustapha Abushima, 38, and his wife Wedad Ahmed, 45, both from Chorlton cum Hardy, Manchester, deny conspiring to abduct children.

While cross-examining Ian Fox, the Norfolk police officer who led the investigation into the missing children, Martin Taylor, defending Abushima, told the court that Beghal had recruited young Muslims for the Jihad while living in the UK from mid 1999 until July 2000, concentrating on London and Leicester.

He said: “He was a key member of a group called Tak Fir-Wal-Hirja that has been described as an extreme and puritanical organisation financed by Osama Bin Laden.

“It is a group once thought beyond the pale even by Osama Bin Laden’s organisation.

“The group believes that everybody who doesn’t adhere to the group should be counted as infidels and legitimate targets in the Holy War.

“The group is of Egyptian origin which specialises in support for terrorist networks, finance and supplying false documents.

“In that group Beghal was described even amongst the extremists, he stood out as being one of the most dangerous.”

After being arrested at Dubai international airport in July 2001, Beghal came clean about his al Qaida links, helping intelligence services around the world build a profile of the organisation, Mr Taylor said.

He claimed the shoe-bomber Richard Reid and Zacharia Moussaoui, described as the 20th hijacker in the September 11 attacks on the US, were among his recruits.

He added: “Mr Beghal was returning to France in 2001 to give the go-ahead for surveillance to attack the American Embassy at the Place de la Concorde in Paris using a lorry or a helicopter.”

The trial was adjourned until tomorrow.

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