A British student has been found guilty of attempting to supply ISIS terrorists with £15,600 ($26,400) after her husband moved to Syria last year.
Amal El-Wahabi was convicted in Britain’s Old Bailey court today following a four week trial. Her friend Nawal Msaad (pictured) was found not guilty, despite carrying rolls of banknotes in her underwear with a view to taking them to Turkey with her.
Msaad’s defence was that she had been “duped” by El-Wahabi, who had asked her to courier the cash to Turkey following her husband’s move. She said: “She [El-Wahabi] wasn’t completely honest with me about where the money came from,” said Ms Msaad told the trial.
“And so I do get that feeling, I’m not going to deny that… the feeling that I have been stitched up. I had no intention to smuggle money into Turkey.”
El-Wahabi’s defence lawyers tried an unorthodox approach to getting her off the terrorism charges, claiming that a “foul-mouthed, red-haired, talkaholic, opinionated, phone-addicted, weed-smoking kaffir” like her could not possibly be intending on funding terrorism or going to live in Syria.
“If a jury in this court in its 200 years has been invited to swallow a more preposterous proposition, I personally would have paid good money to see it.”
But the jury did indeed swallow the proposition, as El-Wahabi today became only the second person ever to be convicted under the UK’s new terror laws for funding of extremist groups.
The girls, both 27, each faced 14-year maximum sentences in prison. Msaad is reported to have cried in the dock when she heard that she had been found not guilty.
Britain’s left-wing news outlets the Guardian and the BBC reported the story as “British student cleared of attempting to smuggle cash to Syrian jihadists” and “Woman cleared of smuggling money for Syria in underwear” respectively – seemingly burying the lede part of the story, that El-Wahabi had been found guilty.
Bizarrely, Msaad recorded a song about her “plight” after being released on bail in March this year. She was also spotted with a Chanel clip tied to her ankle tag that allowed authorities to follow her movements.
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