The Moroccan terrorist who planned a shooting rampage on a high-speed train may have been inspired by an alleged Isis financier who has spent time in Britain, writes Dipesh Gadher.
Video sermons by Nabil al-Awadi, a hardline cleric and former director of a Muslim school in Birmingham, were posted on a Facebook account thought to belong to gunman Ayoub el-Khazzani.
They are among a series of postings that indicate how Khazzani, 26, may have been radicalised and lured to the Isis cause in Syria.
It emerged yesterday that Khazzani was known to security services in Spain, France and Belgium and is believed to have travelled to Syria in May before returning to Europe to attempt his “lone wolf” train attack.
The Facebook account features at least three videos by al-Awadi, posted in May and June 2014. The cleric was stripped of his Kuwaiti citizenship last year after an organisation he led was accused of raising funds for jihadists in Syria. He said he was part of a collective fundraising effort by Kuwaiti charities and claimed he had warned against Isis.
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From April 2012 until his resignation in February 2013, al-Awadi, who could not be contacted for comment this weekend, was listed at Companies House as a director of Al-Birr independent school in Birmingham. He was also reportedly listed at a residential address in Brixton, south London. There is no suggestion of any wrongdoing by the school.
Another preacher whose sermons appear on the Facebook account is Mohammad al-Arifi, a Saudi firebrand who has called for jihad in Syria.
Khazzani’s family is from Tangier in Morocco but moved to the Spanish port city of Algeciras. El Mundo newspaper claimed Khazzani had been arrested for drug trafficking and had been under police surveillance in 2013 or 2014 because of his “extreme jihadist nature”.
When Khazzani signalled a possible move to France last year, the Spanish authorities tipped off their French counterparts. He was also on the intelligence radar in Belgium where he was a visitor to Antwerp, the base for Sharia4Belgium, a banned group which sent fighters to Syria.