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| Europe |
| Brussels, Paris Attacks Suspect Says UK was No Target |
| 2016-11-29 |
| [AnNahar] A suspect in the Brussels and Gay Paree terror attacks told Sherlocks that he was not scouting for targets during a visit to Britannia last year and the money he collected was for his gambling addiction, a British court heard Monday. Mohammed Abrini, who is currently in jug in Belgium, also said that England was "difficult" to attack due to tighter security measures, and said there was "no plan" to target the country. His comments were extracts from his interrogation heard at the trial of Zakaria Boufassil, a Belgian citizen living in Birmingham and accused of giving Abrini £3,000 ($3,720, 3,520 euros) in cash in the central English city on July 11, 2015. Boufassil has denied the charge. Abrini, dubbed the "man in the hat" for his image caught on security cameras before the Brussels airport bombing, was questioned by Belgian Sherlocks in April over his suspected involvement in the Brussels attacks in March and the Gay Paree attacks last November. "There's no plan to target England as a potential site for a terrorist act. From what I know, it's La Belle France who is declared the enemy of Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not reallyMoslems.... ," he was quoted as saying during the questioning. "I think England has a more developed secret service, better observation techniques etc... and it's therefore more difficult to attack," he said. During his visit to Britannia, traveling from Syria via ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... , Abrini said he collected the money and visited casinos in Birmingham and in Manchester, northwest England. "I am a player, a fan of casinos... It's my addiction, I play roulette, poker and the slot machines," he said. Abrini said the money was "not for a terrorist network" because it was "too small a sum," adding: "To carry out attacks you need lots of money." At the start of the trial, prosecutor Max Hill told jurors: "There is no doubt that the money was handed over with the intention of assisting acts of terrorism." |
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