Two men have been convicted of planning an Islamic State-inspired attack on a mass gathering of Jews in the Manchester area.
Walid Saadaoui, 38, and Amar Hussein, 52, had a “visceral dislike” of Jewish people and wanted to cause “untold harm”, the court heard.
But the plot was scuppered as they unknowingly laid bare their scheme to an undercover operative (UCO).
Main instigator Saadaoui aimed to smuggle four AK-47 assault rifles, two handguns and 900 rounds of ammunition into the UK in what police chiefs said could have been Britain’s deadliest terrorist incident.
Months earlier, the father-of-two, originally from Tunisia, paid a deposit for the weapons and believed he had arranged for their importation with a like-minded extremist – but who in fact was the UCO, referred to in court as Farouk.
Saadaoui told Farouk he could independently obtain a firearm via Sweden and indicated he was looking to bring guns from eastern Europe. Separately he had bought an air weapon and had visited a shooting range.
Counterterrorism police intervened on the “strike day” of 8 May last year, with more than 200 officers involved, as Saadaoui was arrested at a hotel car park in Bolton when he went to collect some of the firearms, which had been deactivated.
Preston Crown Court heard he hero-worshipped Islamic State terrorist Abdelhamid Abaaoud, who orchestrated the 2015 Paris terror attacks in which 130 people were killed and hundreds more injured in gun attacks across the city.
No specific target site or date was identified, but prosecutors said the defendants planned to launch a gun assault on an antisemitism march and then head to north Manchester to kill more Jews.
Saadaoui came to the attention of the authorities when he used 10 Facebook accounts, none of which were in his own name, to spread a torrent of Islamic extremist views, as Farouk was deployed to gain his trust online and later in person.
He used one of his fake accounts to join the Facebook group of the Jewish Representative Council of Greater Manchester, which contained details of a “March Against Antisemitism” held in the city centre on 21 January last year, which thousands attended.
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 recruited fellow IS sympathiser Hussein, a Kuwaiti national, who worked and lived at a furniture shop in Bolton, Greater Manchester, to assist his plans.
The pair travelled to Dover, Kent, in March 2024 to conduct hostile reconnaissance on how a weapon could be smuggled through the port without detection.
On his return, Saadaoui travelled to Prestwich and Higher Broughton in north Manchester, where he carried out similar surveillance on Jewish nurseries, schools, synagogues and shops.
A safe house was also secured in Bolton for the storage of the weapons, as both men returned to Dover two months later, where they believed they were watching the firearms coming into the country.
Giving evidence, Saadaoui denied he had an extreme ideology and claimed he was “playing along” with Farouk. He said his intention was to sabotage the plans before they came to fruition as he aimed to cut up the weapons with an angle grinder and then alert the authorities.
Hussein told detectives he was not part of any terror attack plan and said the evidence of the UCO was “fantasy”.
He also told them: “Your government, your prime minister has sent weapons to kill our children in Israel.
“Terrorism is our religion. Quran say terrorism is normal. We are proud, we say terrorism is proud.”
His barrister told jurors that Hussein held “very firm opinions” about the conflict in Gaza, but that did not make him a terrorist.
Saadaoui, of Abram, Wigan, and Hussein, of no fixed address, were convicted of preparing acts of terrorism between December 2023 and May 2024.
Saadaoui’s brother Bilel, 36, of Hindley, Wigan, was found guilty of failing to disclose information about the plan.
All three defendants will be sentenced on 13 February.
Following the verdicts, assistant chief constable of Greater Manchester Police Robert Potts said: “What Walid Saadaoui was trying to achieve was a terrorist attack on the Jewish community that, given the weaponry and ammunition involved, 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 was his duty to kill as many Jewish people as he could. That wasn’t going to be achieved via the use of a knife, or potentially a vehicle, as a weapon.
“There was very real risk and danger for Farouk who undoubtedly saved lives. I cannot overemphasise his courage, bravery and professionalism in the role that he played.
“It was intrinsic to our ability to continue to develop the investigation and allow Walid to continue with his plans up until the point, working with the Crown Prosecution Service, we were satisfied that we had sufficient evidence to get the most significant charges authorised.”
Frank Ferguson, head of the CPS’s special crime and counterterrorism division, said: “The investigation and prosecution deployed a highly trained witness who made sure their plot did not succeed and secured valuable evidence directly from the mouths of the terrorists.
“They laid bare their intention to destroy lives, their long-held attitudes and beliefs as well as their Isis credentials.”
