'My husband is the victim' says British-based wife of Al Qaeda leader who radicalised Charlie Hebdo killers
- Sylvie Beghal believes her husband Djamel is a victim after Paris killings
- Mr Beghal is being held in solitary confinement in a French prison
- Security services believe he is a top al Qaeda's recruiter in Europe
- Mrs Beghal lives in Leicester, does not work, and lives on benefits
Published:
00:17 GMT, 17 January 2015
|
Updated:
00:23 GMT, 17 January 2015
The wife of the Al Qaeda chief who radicalised the Charlie Hebdo killers has claimed he is a ‘victim’.
Sylvie
Beghal, 45, who lives on benefits in Leicester, declared her husband
Djamel Beghal a ‘hostage’ after he was put in solitary confinement
following the terror attacks.
She
moaned that French officers broke his prison television and spilled his
coffee while investigating his connection to the massacre.
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Sylvie
Beghal, 45, who lives on benefits in Leicester, left, claims her
husband, Djamel Beghal, right was a hostage after he was placed into
solitary confinement following the Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris last
week
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Beghal, right, is believed to have radicalised Paris killers Amedy Coulibaly and Cherif Kouachi
Djamel
Beghal – one of Al Qaeda’s top recruiters in Europe – is said to have
radicalised Paris killers Amedy Coulibaly and Chérif Kouachi in a French
prison and organised crossbow training for Hayat Boumeddiene, now the
world’s most wanted woman.
His
wife, meanwhile, is believed to have cost British taxpayers more than a
quarter of a million pounds in handouts since moving to the UK for its
‘Islamic environment’.
‘Djamel
is under huge amounts of pressure,’ she complained after the Paris
attacks. ‘They turned the cell upside down, wasted all of his supplies,
mixing up all his sugar, pasta and coffee on the floor. They opened up
the TV in a hateful and vengeful manner.
‘Yes, he is a victim of French injustice. And yes, he’s a French hostage.’
Mrs Beghal’s comments are likely to horrify the families and friends of those murdered in Paris last week.
The Mail revealed Mrs Beghal’s disturbing comments as it also emerged:
■ She is living on benefits with her four children in a four-bedroom home in the Midlands;
■ She has previously taken legal action to try to have her terrorist husband moved from France to the UK;
■ She claims she does not work because of ‘media pressure’;
■
She has a conviction of her own related to her husband, which she is
fighting at the Supreme Court, at huge cost to the taxpayer.
Beghal,
49, who is regarded as one of Europe’s top terror recruiters, used to
live in the UK but is now banned on grounds of national security. Born
in Algeria, he moved when he was 22 to France, where he married in 1990.
He became a French citizen, allowing the couple to relocate in 1998 to
the UK. Though living in Leicester, he travelled to London, where he
became a regular at Finsbury Park Mosque and was allegedly radicalised
under the influence of Abu Hamza and Abu Qatada.
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French police released surveillance photographs of Djamel Beghal, left and Paris killer Cherif Kouachi, right
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Beghal, left, was also filmed meeting Amedy Coulibaly, right, who attacked a Jewish deli in Paris
Apparently keen to be trained by Al Qaeda, Beghal moved his family to Afghanistan in November 2000.
A
few months later and just weeks before the 9/11 attacks, he was
arrested at Abu Dhabi airport, suspected of trying to return to Europe
to lead Osama bin Laden’s war on the West.
In
2005, he was sentenced in France to ten years behind bars after
confessing to a bomb plot. While in jail, Beghal is believed to have
radicalised Amedy Coulibaly, inspiring him to kill a policewoman and
four shoppers last week.
There,
he also met Chérif Kouachi, one of the brothers behind the Charlie
Hebdo massacre. Around the same time, he also hosted crossbow training
sessions for Hayat Boumeddiene, now the world’s most wanted woman,
before he was imprisoned again.
Beghal
is previously thought to have helped recruit to Al Qaeda shoebomber
Richard Reid and Zacarias Moussaoui, the suspected 20th 9/11 hijacker.
Despite her husband’s damning links to Al Qaeda and the Paris terror
attacks, Mrs Beghal has been allowed to live in Britain on benefits. She
said in an earlier interview that the family chose Britain because: ‘I
wanted to educate my children surrounded by Muslim brothers and
sisters.’
According
to the Government’s benefits calculator, she would be entitled to an
estimated £20,900 a year in welfare. This assumes she is not claiming
for any disabilities. Her two sons at university are likely to be
receiving almost £35,000 a year in loans and grants.
She has taken a conviction for failing to disclose information to police as far as the Supreme Court.
Leicester Council said it could not discuss the ‘personal details’ of Mrs Beghal’s benefits. She refused to comment.
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