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A former pub landlord turned barber store proprietor despatched £25,000 to ISIS fighters in Syria for weapons after claiming 1000’s of kilos in taxpayer-funded Covid grants, a courtroom heard at the moment.
Tarek Namouz, 43, from West London, had acquired cash from the federal government to help his enterprise, Boss Crew Barbers, in the course of the Covid 19 pandemic, and lived in a third-floor flat above the store.
The previous pub landlord is accused of boasting that the terrorists he’s accused of funding have ‘incinerators like Hitler’. In WhatsApp messages learn to courtroom he additionally allegedly stated: ‘I need to burn Christianity, we’ve got incinerators and holocausts like Hitler, a lesson from historical past’.
He’s accused of sending cash on no less than seven separate dates between November 2020 and April 2021, which was supposed to fund a militia in Syria.
John McGuinness KC, prosecuting, informed the jury: ‘On the time you might bear in mind the Covid pandemic was very a lot ongoing in 2020 and 2021 The defendant was periodically in receipt of Covid grant aid from his native authority, Hammersmith and Fulham.’
When police raided the barber’s store in Blythe Street, Olympia they discovered money and a hidden cell phone containing messages to a contact in Syria, an ISIS bomb-making video and a video displaying tips on how to kill with a knife.
Within the months main as much as his arrest, he transferred cash utilizing Belief Cash Transfers on Edgware Street, sending it to Syria, the place he had lived till he was aged 14.
Tarek Namouz is showing at Kingston Crown Courtroom at the moment. He denies sending 1000’s of kilos in coronavirus bounceback loans to fund the terrorist group Isis
Mr McGuinness informed the jury at Kingston Crown Courtroom: ‘He would usually give money to the bureau which might be transformed into Syrian kilos and despatched abroad as money’ the place it was acquired by a person known as Yahya Ahmed Alia.
The previous pub landlord boasted the terrorists he’s accused of funding have ‘incinerators like Hitler’ in a WhatsApp change with Mr Alia, the courtroom heard.
He allegedly stated ‘I need to burn Christianity, we’ve got incinerators and holocausts like Hitler, a lesson from historical past’ in an change on Arabic the app uncovered on his Samsung cellphone.
Mr Alia replied ‘Shia, Alawites and Druz’ to which Namouz allegedly stated ‘100 per cent’.
The pair additionally talked up plans to kill non-believers, behead opponents, perform public executions within the streets and show our bodies following an anticipated victory in a battle for management of the nation’s capital Damascus, the trial was informed.
In a single change Namouz is claimed to have written: ‘We are going to take management of all folks by drive and by the ruling of Sharia legislation.
‘Whoever shouldn’t be completely happy can get misplaced/he can go away.
Later within the change he refers to ‘placing the necks’ and ‘slaughtering with the knife.’
He then says ‘I swear to Allah we are going to trigger chaos’ and ‘kill the non-believers’.
Within the exchanges Mr Alia stated ‘Whoever shouldn’t be completely happy, a bullet of their head, I do not desire a single particular person alive who would oppose Sharia’.
Mr Alia additionally informed him ‘we’re in a wonderful state of affairs now’ after buying Kalashnikovs and a gun to which Namouz is claimed to have replied ‘nice, blessing.’
Officers recognized seven transfers between November 2020 and April 2021, for a complete of about £11,280.
Namouz, 43, from West London, had acquired cash from the federal government to help his enterprise, Boss Crew Barbers, in the course of the Covid 19 pandemic, and lived in a third-floor flat above the store.
‘The prosecution say the seven sums set out weren’t the one cash despatched out, there was different cash despatched for which the prosecution doesn’t have any data,’ Mr McGuinness stated.
Throughout a bugged dialog in August 2021, with a buddy who was visiting him in jail after his arrest, Namouz allegedly stated that police knew about a few of the transfers however didn’t know he had transferred extra and referred to sending £25,000 to the identical man in Syria.
When Namouz’s barber store was raided by police, on Might 25 final yr, a Samsung Galaxy 10 cell phone discovered beneath a backside drawer.
‘At about 7am whereas a few of the officers had been nonetheless within the defendant’s flat they heard the sound of an alarm or a cell phone ringing accompanied by a vibrating noise, the sound as if it was set to wake you up within the morning,’ Mr McGuinness informed the jury.
‘There was a four-drawer set of drawers within the bed room of the flat. After they lifted out the underside drawer, within the recess beneath the drawer, they discovered a Samsung Galaxy 10 cellphone and subsequent to it a set of keys.’
Within the prime drawer, the officers discovered a amount of money which got here to £3,170.
On the cellphone, officers discovered messages utilizing the encrypted Whatsapp discussion board that confirmed that Namouz was ‘of the identical mindset’ as Alia, Mr McGuinness stated.
The boys had been ‘each dedicated to the Islamic extremist tradition of Islamic State and the rationale he despatched cash to Ahmed was for terrorism, to additional terrorism in Syria.’
The messages included references to plots of land and utilizing the cash to purchase a constructing or assemble a constructing that will be used to promote meals in addition to for ‘terrorist functions,’ Mr McGuinness stated.
There was ‘discuss of individuals occupying the constructing that the prosecution say had been Islamic State fighters, and of storing weapons,’ he added.
The cellphone additionally had the encrypted Telegram app which had been used to obtain ISIS propaganda and educational materials together with a video displaying tips on how to make explosive substances, and one other displaying an ISIS fighter demonstrating assassination methods utilizing a knife.
Namouz doesn’t dispute he made the transfers however initially claimed he had despatched cash out to assist those that had been ‘poor and needy’ in Syria, the jury was informed.
Interviewed by police for a second time, some months later, he informed the police he had wished to retire to Syria and had despatched cash over which had been used to purchase a part of a plot of land and he was going put up an house block on it, in addition to having a farm on one other plot of land.
‘The prosecution says that what the defendant informed the police in regards to the purpose for sending out the cash was unfaithful,’ Mr McGuinness stated.
The trial continues.
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