Walid Saadoui, 38, and Amar Hussein, 52, deny terror charges
18:08, 09 Oct 2025Updated 18:13, 09 Oct 2025
(left to right) Walid Saadaoui, Bilel Saadaoui and Amar Hussein appearing at Preston Crown Court(Image: PA)
An Islamic State fanatic who plotted the ‘mass murder’ of Jews in Manchester ‘hero-worshipped’ the mastermind of the 2015 Paris terror attack in which 130 people were killed, a prosecutor told a jury.
Waalid Saadoui was also said to have taken an undercover cop named Farouk who exposed the ‘operation’ on a tour of ‘targets’ in Jewish areas of north Manchester ahead of a planned attack in the summer of 2024, jurors heard.
The defendant, who was said to have amassed an arsenal of guns, created ten Facebook pages which were used to promote extremism and the profile picture of one of them was an image of Abdelhamid Abaaoud, a Belgian national who orchestrated the Paris attacks, a jury at Preston Crown Court was told.
Resuming his opening address to the jury, prosecutor Harpreet Sandhu KC said Mr Saadaoui posted one message on one of his Facebook pages on January 18, 2023, which prompted the platform to send him a warning that he had breached its ‘community standards’ rules concerning ‘dangerous individuals and organisations’.
The post concerned Abd al-Hamid Abaaoud who the prosecutor said had ‘masterminded’ the terror attacks in Paris in 2015. The post from Waalid Saadaoui said Abaaoud had ‘humiliated’ ‘heretic’ states and had ‘made the streets run with their impure blood’.
The KC said to the jury: “Abdelhamid Abaaoud’s actions were a source of inspiration for Walid Saadaoui. He wanted to replicate what Abaaoud had done. We shall see that he said as much several times. Walid Saadaoui hero-worshipped that terrorist.” The defendant spoke about him ‘with pride and reverence’.
The 38-year-old Mr Saadaoui, of Crankwood Road, Abram, Wigan, and Amar Hussein, 52, of no fixed abode, deny terror charges
The two men plotted to kill ‘as many Jews as possible’ in Manchester after amassing a huge arsenal of guns and ammunition were thwarted by an undercover operative, the prosecutor told the court on Wednesday when he began his opening address at Preston Crown Court.
Preston Crown Court(Image: MEN Media)
When counter terror cops arrested him, Mr Saadaoui tried to flee but officers found two assault rifles, a semi-automatic pistol and almost 200 rounds of ammunition in his car, the court has been told. He was awaiting delivery of a further two assault rifles, another pistol and more ammunition, according to the Crown.
Walid Saadaoui’s ‘deep hatred’ of Jews was demonstrated in his posts on Facebook, the KC told the court. He is said to have posted a video of Islamic State fighters in which it was said: “Yes, with all violence, strike at their position, demolish the place on their heads, we will soon to attack the Jewish enemy forces on the Egyptian border, we told them before that the war has not yet begun.”
Walid Saadaoui posted images of dead bodies following an attack in Jerusalem and posted ‘nine Jewish corpses’, the court was told. He was said to have posted: “Nine Jewish corpses. O Allah, increase and bless… You see something beautiful today.”
The jurors were told that Walid Saadaoui had withdrawn £90,000 in cash by almost emptying various bank accounts ‘within a month or so’ and so he had ‘more than enough money to carry out his attack’.
Walid Saadaoui had withdrawn the cash also for his family so the authorities ‘could not seize it’ after he had completed his plan of ‘murdering people’ and he had become a ‘martyr’, said the prosecutor.
The defendant had owned a restaurant in Great Yarmouth and when he sold it he moved his family to Crankwood Drive in Wigan, the court heard. When police searched Walid Saadaoui’s home in Wigan, officers found a ‘hidden’ safe hidden under a brick outhouse, the court was told.
In the safe officers found a rucksack which had £74,000 cash inside it, the jurors were told. The jurors were told that Walid’s brother Bilal had a key to the safe which was found when officers searched his home.
Walid Saadaoui kept the money there for his family for after the ‘atrocity’ he was planning to commit ‘in the name of Islam’, said Mr Sandhu.
(left to right) Walid Saadaoui, Bilel Saadaoui and Amar Hussein appearing at Preston Crown Court(Image: PA)
The jurors weRe told that the undercover operative Farouk, under the name Abu Bilal, sent a friend request to Walid Saadaoui’s ‘Liya Ernia’ Facebook account on December 13, 2023.
The Facebook page featured a picture of the mastermind of the Paris terror attacks Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the court heard.
The request was accepted and Farouk asked the defendant: “Peace and blessing of God be up on, how did you get to know the martyr brother Abdul Hamid?”
The jurors were told Farouk replied: “I am from Belgium, that’s how I got to know him.” Abdelhamid Abaaoud was Belgian and the defendant was convinced he was communicating with a ‘like-minded individual’, the court was told.
The defendant’s interest was ‘piqued’ and he asked if he knew Abdul Hamid ‘personally’.
Farouk is said to have answered: “No, he used to live five minutes away from me, and I am from a Moroccan background, I didn’t know him personally.”
Walid Saadaoui was said to have replied: “May God preserve you. You need to do what he had done, make him a role model and carry out operations against the Jews and the Crusaders there, and hitting them there affects them badly.”
The defendant then asked Farouk ‘how much an automatic gun costs in Belgium?’ before deleting the post.
The defendant was also said to have told Farouk: “I can use a knife in the operation, but this will not be enough to take revenge, only the automatic gun. I want to kill as many as possible.”
He is said to have added: “I have an overwhelming anger, I feel sometimes I will go out and kill them with stones then I say to myself, it will be a waste, I have to do many.”
The prosecutor said: “To put it bluntly these are messages about mass murder.”
Mr Saadoui and Farouk repeatedly discussed how to source weapons from north Africa, and the defendant suggested it would be ‘easy’ to smuggle weapons through Northern Ireland.
The prosecutor said Walid Saadoui used the name Will Alba on Facebook to join a group called ‘Manchester Jewish Community’, convincing the administrator he was a member of a synagogue in Croydon and had recently moved to Manchester.
It was ‘to get information’ about gatherings of Jews so he could commit atrocities, the jurors were told.
The defendant also joined a Facebook group of the Jewish Representative Council of Greater Manchester which posted details about a ‘March Against Antisemitism’ which had been held on January 21, 2024, and was attended by thousands of people, the jurors were told.
The jurors heard that Walid Saadaoui also exchanged voicenotes with Farouq, and that in one he told the undercover operative: “So when we see a child with his internals sticking out killed by a Jew, glory be to God, you wouldn’t have you can’t even describe the feeling… I am on the same course, following the same things you were saying.
“We only ask God to make some things easy. As I told you sheikh, these matters of running someone over with a car or using a knife is ineffective. What is needed is an automatic gun, an automatic gun.
“Did you see what Aba ’Oud [did], we want to do the same as what Aba ‘Oud done, God willing. We must run rivers of their impure bloods.”
In another voicenote Mr Saadouii also suggested driving ‘a big truck’ into crowds.
The pair started talking on the phone from January 14, 2024, often about how to smuggle guns into England, the court heard.
The defendant told Farouk each gun would have to come with at least 200 rounds of ammunition each, the jurors are told.
He was said to have told the undercover operative: “I told you 200 are a minimum, minimum… It is better than everyone will carry with him 5 magazines. You can become a martyr in the first minute and you can become a martyr after one week or 3 days.”
The prosecutor told the jurors: “He was speaking about pure, unadulterated terrorism.”
Waalid Saadoui was said to have discussed with Farouk the role the supplier of the guns should play at the exchange.
He was said to have told Farouk: “Try to explain to him that these matters are a question of life and death… You know when we go and collect the pieces of him, we are suicidal – with God’s will – even if he became a martyr in that area his reward is with God.
“If someone starts to play up like this or like that, we will shoot at him, directly, directly.”
The defendant took Farouk to north Manchester which has a ‘large Jewish population’ with many schools, synagogues and kosher shops, said the prosecutor.
In another exchange, Waalid Saadoui is said to have told Farouq: “I want to make you understand something brother, I live in England and I know about things… Here in Manchester, we have the biggest Jewish community… That is why I am telling you. We will carry out (the operation) here, the biggest delegation of the ‘impure’ Jews in Europe… The second biggest congregation, the first one is in London, so this is the second biggest congregation.
“Here we have schools that serve Jews. Hospitals that serve Jews only, synagogues, temples serve only Jews. Their streets are full of Jews.”
The defendant said he had gone ‘undercover’ at Jewish gatherings and marches and that he was ‘interrogated’ when he tried to join Jewish social media groups.
Walid Saadaoui, 38, of Crankwood Road, Abram, Wigan, and Amar Hussein, 52, of no fixed abode, deny terror charges
They have pleaded not guilty to preparation of terrorist acts, namely that between December 13, 2023, and May 9, 2024, with the intention of committing acts of terrorism, they arranged for the purchase and delivery of firearms, conducted reconnaissance and made plans of attack.
Walid’s brother, Bilel Saadaoui, 36, from Hindley, Wigan, has pleaded not guilty to a single charge of failing to disclose acts of terrorism between the same dates.
Proceeding.