Two Men Convicted For Plotting Major Islamic Terror Attack on Manchester Jewish Community

Two Muslim men were convicted Tuesday of plotting a mass shooting attack intended to cause “untold harm” to Manchester’s Jewish community, following an extensive counterterrorism investigation.

Walid Saadaoui, 38, and Amar Hussein, 52, were found guilty after prosecutors told Preston Crown Court that the pair harbored a “visceral dislike” of Jewish people and worked to bring firearms into the UK as part of what was described as an “ISIS-inspired plot.”

The court heard that the two believed they were coordinating their plans with a third individual known as Farouk, whom they thought shared their Islamist ideology. In reality, Farouk was an undercover operative working with authorities.

Greater Manchester Police said Saadaoui was the driving force behind the scheme and warned that the plot “could potentially have been the deadliest terrorist attack in UK history.”

Saadaoui, from Abram in Wigan, and Hussein, who is homeless, were convicted of preparing acts of terrorism committed between December 13, 2023, and May 9, 2024.

A third defendant, Saadaoui’s younger brother, Bilel Saadaoui, 36, was convicted of failing to disclose information relating to acts of terrorism.

Prosecutors said Walid Saadaoui sought to smuggle four AK-47 assault rifles, two handguns, and roughly 900 rounds of ammunition into the UK. Months earlier, the father of two, originally from Tunisia, paid a deposit for the weapons and believed arrangements were in place with Farouk to import them.

The court was told Saadaoui also claimed he could source a firearm independently via Sweden and explored bringing weapons from eastern Europe. Separately, he purchased an air weapon and visited a shooting range.

Saadaoui was arrested in a Bolton hotel car park on May 8, 2024, after arriving to collect firearms from a car. The weapons had been deactivated, but prosecutors said two assault rifles, a semi-automatic pistol, and nearly 200 rounds of ammunition were found in the vehicle.

Counterterrorism officers testified that authorities had been controlling the weapons’ supply and delivery to prevent any danger to the public. Hussein and Bilel Saadaoui, who were elsewhere at the time, were arrested minutes later.

Jurors heard that Walid Saadaoui had been planning to “martyr himself” during the attack. He prepared a will and left it with his brother, along with access to his belongings and tens of thousands of dollars in cash to support his family.

Authorities first became aware of Saadaoui after he operated 10 Facebook accounts under false names to disseminate extremist Islamic content. Farouk was introduced to gain his trust online and later in person.

Using one of the fake accounts, Saadaoui joined a Facebook group run by the Jewish Representative Council of Greater Manchester, which included information about a “March Against Antisemitism” held in the city center on January 21 last year.

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 later recruited Hussein, a Kuwaiti national who lived and worked at a furniture shop in Bolton, to assist with the plot.

In March 2024, the pair traveled to Dover to conduct hostile reconnaissance on methods for smuggling weapons through the port. After returning, Saadaoui carried out similar surveillance in Prestwich and Higher Broughton, examining Jewish nurseries, schools, shuls and shops.

The court heard that Bilel Saadaoui was not planning to take part in the attack itself but knew of his brother’s intentions and sympathized with the views of the so-called Islamic State group.

WhatsApp messages between the brothers were shown to jurors and were said to “provide a flavour of the views they held about Jewish people.” In one exchange, Bilel Saadaoui sent Hussein a link to a news report about Jewish victims killed in a bridge collapse, adding the hashtag “Beloved Palestine.”

Testifying in his defense, Walid Saadaoui denied holding extremist beliefs and claimed he was merely “playing along” with Farouk. He said he intended to sabotage the plot by cutting up the weapons with an angle grinder and then notifying authorities.

Hussein also denied involvement, telling detectives that the undercover operative’s account was “fantasy.” He said: “Your government, your Prime Minister has sent weapons to kill our children in Israel.

“Terrorism is our religion. Koran say terrorism is normal. We are proud, we say terrorism is proud.”

His barrister argued that while Hussein held “very firm opinions” about the Gaza conflict, that alone did not make him a terrorist.

All three defendants are scheduled to be sentenced on February 13.

After the verdicts, GMP Assistant Chief Constable Robert Potts said Saadaoui’s plan 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 as his duty to kill as many Jewish people as he could,” Potts said.

Frank Ferguson, head of the Crown Prosecution Service’s special crime and counterterrorism division, described the case as “a deeply disturbing plot inspired by extremist ideology.”

He said Farouk acted as a “highly trained witness who made sure their plot did not succeed and secured valuable evidence directly from the mouths of the terrorists.”