Gun plot terror accused ‘hero-worshipped’ Paris attacks mastermind, jury told

A man accused of plotting a gun atrocity on a mass gathering of Jews “hero-worshipped” the mastermind of the 2015 Paris terror attacks, a court has heard.

Walid Saadaoui, 38, and Amar Hussein, 52, are alleged to have plotted to cause “untold harm” and kill as many Jewish people as they could in the north-west of England.

Saadaoui had access to “fierce weapons” including assault rifles which were capable of firing several hundred rounds of ammunition per minute, Preston Crown Court heard, and were the type of firearms used across Paris when 130 people were killed and hundreds more were injured.

Continuing his opening of the prosecution case on Thursday, Harpreet Sandhu KC told jurors: “Abdelhamid Abaaoud’s actions which led to those deaths and injuries were a source of inspiration for Walid Saadaoui.

“He wanted to replicate what Abaaoud had done.

“Walid Saadaoui hero-worshipped that terrorist.”

In social media posts the defendant wrote about the Belgian-born Islamic terrorist – suspected of organising multiple terrorist attacks in Belgium and France – with “pride and reverence”, said the prosecutor.

In a Facebook post in January 2023 he wrote: “At only the age of 26 he humiliated the most notorious heretic states, Belgium and France, and broke their strength. He made the streets run with their impure blood.”

Mr Sandhu said that Saadaoui used 10 Facebook accounts, none of which were in his own name, which he used to spread his Islamic extremist views.

One of those accounts was in the name of Liya Ernia in which he began to communicate with an undercover operative who he believed to be a fellow sympathiser of the so-called Islamic State and a “like-minded individual”, the court was told.

Mr Sandhu said the profile picture that Saadaoui used for the Liya Ernia account was the terrorist Abaaoud.

He said that Saadaoui used another of his accounts, in the name of Will Alba, to join a Facebook group page called Manchester Jewish Community and explained he had recently moved to Manchester and had been part of the congregation of a synagogue in Croydon, London.

The prosecutor said the defendant also joined the Facebook group of the Jewish Representative Council of Greater Manchester which had contained details of a ‘March Against Antisemitism’ held on January 21 last year in which thousands had attended.

Mr Sandhu said: “Walid Saadaoui was interested in finding similar events to launch an attack with Amar Hussein and do what they dreamed of, and that was killing many Jewish people.”

Police were able to thwart their plans becoming a tragic reality as they unknowingly laid bare their scheme to the undercover operative, the court has been told.

Four days after the antisemitism march in central Manchester, Walid Saadaoui was said to have told the undercover agent: “Here in Manchester, we have the biggest Jewish community.

“That is why I am telling you. We will carry out (the operation) here, the biggest delegation of the “impure” Jews in Europe.

“The second-biggest congregation, the first one is in London, so this is the second-biggest congregation. Here we have schools that serve Jews. Hospitals that serve Jews only, synagogues, temples serve only Jews. Their streets are full of Jews.”

He added: “I am participating in Jewish pages as an imposter and went in undercover … I see their gatherings and their marches, their condemnations, their meetings and their parliaments.

“I was watching everything on a daily basis. I wish you could come here and we go together to show you their entries and exits and gatherings, only awaiting the world to heat up.

“God willing we will degrade and humiliate them (in the worst way possible), and hit them where it hurts.”

Saadaoui, of Abram, Wigan, and Hussein, of no fixed address, deny preparing acts of terrorism between December 13 2023 and May 9 2024.

Walid Saadaoui’s brother, Bilel Saadaoui, 36, of Hindley, Wigan, has pleaded not guilty to failing to disclose information about acts of terrorism in the same period.