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| Britain |
| Al-Qaeda member is a child abductor, court hears |
| 2005-04-21 |
| An al-Qaeda member helped abduct five children from Norfolk to Libya, a court heard on Wednesday. The children disappeared after spending the day with their Libyan father, Azzedin Journazi, in June 2000. On Wednesday the court was the told the father enlisted a group of people, including Djamel Beghal, of al-Qaeda. Mustapha Abushima, 38, and Wedad Ahmed, 45, of Manchester, deny conspiring with others to abduct the children. The children remain in Libya. The children's mother Anita Elgirnazi, 36, told Norwich Crown Court she eventually managed to contact them after acquiring a telephone number for her former husband's family. Beghal, 39, was described as being a key member of an "extreme and puritanical group" financed by Osama Bin Laden, Norwich Crown Court heard. Beghal, an Algerian, was sentenced to 10 years in prison earlier this year for associating with a terrorist organisation. In a statement he admitted making the cross channel reservations - but said he thought the children were going to Disneyland Paris. The children were snatched from their mother on 10 June 2000. The prosecution alleges that their Libyan father Azzedin Journazi devised a plan to take them and recruited seven people including Beghal to help. At the time Rumaysa Elgirnazi was 11, Safiya Elgirnazi, nine, Ali Elgirnazi, seven, Hamza Elgirnazi, four, and Aisha Elgirnazi, two. The court was told by defence lawyer Martin Taylor that Beghal was a key member of a group called Takfir-Wal-Hirja, financed by Bin Laden. "In that group Beghal was described even amongst the extremists, he stood out as being one of the most dangerous," said Mr Taylor. The trial was adjourned until Thursday. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |