MI5 missed chance to catch Brussels attacker ‘when he met ISIS moneymen in Birmingham before carnage’
MI5 and anti-terror police missed the chance to catch a Brussels bombings suspect in Britain months earlier.
One of the pair, Mohammed Ali Ahmed, was on an MI5 watch-list, it has emerged.
But there was no surveillance on the day Ahmed, 27, and pal Zakaria Boufassil, 26, met accused terrorist Abrini.
Abrini, 31, was allegedly later spotted on CCTV in a distinctive hat during the Brussels airport attack in March this year.
He had spent several days in the UK and even toured Manchester United’s Old Trafford stadium.
Data also showed he made calls near the Kensington Palace home of Prince Harry and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.
In November last year, his alleged terror cell launched the Paris attacks.
The Belgium atrocities followed and took the death toll to 162.
Last night police insisted Ahmed’s profile did not merit 24/7 surveillance at the time.
Assistant Chief Constable Marcus Beale of West Midlands Counter-Terrorism Unit, said: “The activity of ourselves and the Security Service was in proportion to the threat, tackling money being facilitated and transferred.
“We have to make decisions about the use of resources and in this case that was completely appropriate to the circumstances and the threat we faced.”
ACC Beale said it was their “strong assessment” there was “nothing sinister” in the rest of Abrini’s visit to Britain after the meeting at Small Heath.
But he warned that the threat had “never been broader or deeper”.
Abrini was finally caught in Belgium in April and admitted visiting Britain on the orders of the plot’s mastermind, Abdelhamid Abaaoud.
Boufassil was arrested as he flew into the UK from Morocco in April this year and charged with preparing terrorist acts.
He was yesterday convicted at Kingston crown court of preparing terrorist acts. He will be sentenced with Ahmed, who admitted the offence on Monday.
Meanwhile, it also emerged the £3,000 handed to Abrini came from a larger £11,000 benefits pot mistakenly paid to an IS fighter’s bank account who was already in Syria.
All but £29 was withdrawn from his account, the rest of it after Abrini’s visit.
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Prosecutor Max Hill QC told the court Boufassil and Ahmed had gone to “extraordinary lengths” to ensure their “meeting in the bushes” took place in secret.
Last night Tory MP Dominic Raab said: “This is a sobering reminder of the dangers of EU free movement rules. EU rules severely weakened UK border controls.”
Abrini was arrested in April in Belgium. He is in custody facing trial for terrorist murder.