Jihadi wife guilty over ‘cash in knickers’ terror plot

Amal El Wahabi, 27, was convicted of funding terrorism after an Old Bailey jury heard how she asked a friend to smuggle the cash to her husband Aine Davis, who is believed to have joined a jihadi group fighting against the Assad regime in Syria.

The woman she enlisted to deliver the money, 27-year-old Nawal Msaad, was cleared by the jury after she told the court she had no idea the money was for terrorist purposes.

In an exclusive interview Msaad, who describes herself as a moderate Muslim, told Channel 4 News she believes would never have been charged if she had been “Natalie from Surrey”. She also expressed her anger at the way the security services treated her and her family.

The student tweeted pictures of the designer outfits she would wear to court and even “pimped” her probation tag with the Chanel logo.

Abandoned for jihad

The court heard how El Wahabi had been left to bring up two young children on her own, after her husband, muslim convert Aine Davis, 30, left her to fight alongside extremists in Syria.

Read more: Britons in Syria

When Davis told his wife he needed a courier to deliver twenty thousand euros to him in Turkey, El Wahabi asked Msaad to smuggle the cash to him.

Msaad was stopped by the security services in January as she was about to board a flight to Istanbul. The money was found wrapped in a condom, hidden in her underwear.

The women became the first in the UK to be charged with terrorism offences relating to the conflict in Syria.

Both maintained their innocence. El Wahabi, described by her own lawyers as “a foul-mouthed, phone-addicted, weed-smoking kaffir”, told the jury the money was to help her husband buy a new house in Turkey, where they were going to start a new life.

Msaad said she agreed to take it over as a favour for her friend, and assumed they had asked her because it was cheaper than using a money-transfer company.

Muslim convert

The court heard that El Wahabi was just a teenager when she met her husband at a mosque in West London. He was a volunteer, she worked in the mosque’s nursery – they decided to marry, initially against the wishes of her parents.

Davis was a convert to Islam, but over the years he adopted a more extreme version of the religion. He began calling himself Hamza and when they had their first child, he gave the boy the middle name Shaheed, meaning martyr.

Last year, Davis told his wife he was leaving the UK for good and the security services believe he left to fight with Islamists in Syria. He sent his wife a number of pictures of himself in combat gear, brandishing a Kalashnikov.

He also sent his wife a number of extremist videos and speeches by well-known preachers including Anwar Al-Awlaki, encouraging viewers to participate in jihad.

El Wahabi had been left behind to bring up the children alone at her flat in north London. The court was shown a number of Whatsapp and text messages between her and her husband, revealing her growing distress.

‘Pls come bk’

In one message, she wrote: “Pls come bk…I have two kids to think about..I’m like the mum n dad, it’s bloody hard.”

But Davis seemed to show little sympathy, telling her: “Allah will reward you abundantly, just be patient.”

I will come so we don’t get divorced. I won’t be able to deal with dat. Amal El Wahabi

The exchanges show that Davis repeatedly threated to take a second wife if El Wahabi didn’t join him. In the end, she agreed, telling him: “I will come so we don’t get divorced. I won’t be able to deal with dat.”

El Wahabi told the jury she had only agreed to join her husband in Turkey so that they could start a new life together, and that she believed he was working with an aid convoy somewhere on the border. She denied that he was involved in any fighting.

A few weeks later, Davis told her that one of his contacts would be dropping 20,000 euros round to her flat and she would have to get it delivered to him in Turkey.

It is not clear where the money came from. In court, El Wahabi said she believed it was money left over from Davis’s time as a drug dealer in London.

‘U wanna do a job?’

El Wahabi and Msaad, who were both born in London and of Moroccan descent, had been close friends for years.

Msaad, who had been studying human resources at London Metropolitan University in Aldgate, agreed to take the cash in return for 1,000 euros.

El Wahabi texted her friend, asking: “Hay bbz r u bussy dis week… U wanna do a job?”

Msaad replied: “Hey honey, I’m up to my neck in uni work… What’s it for?”

El-Wahaabi wrote: “OK… I will call you l8r, explain. U have 2 go away for 2 days n get paid a grand, but in euros n everything is covered for u.”

Msaad replied with just one word: “Whaaaay.”

When she was stopped at the departure gate on January 16 she said the three-day trip to Istanbul to buy gold for her mother.

She was taken into a private room where she produced 38 500-euro notes, four 200-euro notes and two 100-euro notes from her underwear.

Unlikely extremist

Msaad was described in court as a most unlikely extremist. Her Facebook pages are full of pictures of her out partying, having fun with friends and posing for the camera.

Her defence team argued it was ridiculous to imagine she had been recruited to the jihadist cause in such a short series of exchanges, for the promise of a thousand euros.

Msaad told Channel 4 News that although she felt as though her friend El Wahabi had set her up, she felt more anger towards the police and the security services.

She said: “There was no evidence at all on my phone, my computer, anywhere, to suggest I had ever talked about extremism, down loaded extremist messages or anything of the sort.”