ByDANIELLE GREYMAN-KENNARD
Updated:

Walid Saadaoui was said to have sold the Albatross Restaurant in eastern England to purchase firearms to use on an attack on Manchester’s Jewry, prosecutors told Preston Crown Court last week.

Inspired by ISIS, Saadoui had reportedly planned to purchase four AK-47 rifles, two handguns and 1,200 rounds of ammunition to carry out a mass shooting on Jewish targets in the city. 

Unknowingly organizing to purchase the weapons from an undercover officer, Saadoui was arrested in a Bolton hotel car park during the firearm delivery, according to media reports.

Prosecutor Kelly Brocklehurst told jurors that Saadaoui used at least 10 accounts to post ISIS propaganda from 2022 onwards.

UK PRIME MINISTER Keir Starmer and his wife, Victoria, visit the scene of the deadly attack on Yom Kippur at a Manchester synagogue. Antisemitism is a light sleeper, and Starmer’s spineless appeasement has only stirred it awake, the writer charges.
UK PRIME MINISTER Keir Starmer and his wife, Victoria, visit the scene of the deadly attack on Yom Kippur at a Manchester synagogue. Antisemitism is a light sleeper, and Starmer’s spineless appeasement has only stirred it awake, the writer charges. (credit: REUTERS/HANNAH MCKAY)

His posts reportedly included: “We will fight until death, even if souls have perished and blood has been shed.”

Another, shared in June 2023, read: “Should you be martyred or die in the cause of Allah, then his forgiveness and mercy are far better than whatever wealth those who stay behind accumulated.”

Amar Hussein, 52,  was also charged with preparing terrorist acts, while Saadaoui's brother Bilel Saadaoui, 36, is charged with failing to disclose information about acts of terrorism.

All three have pleaded not guilty and jurors were told that the planned attack was unrelated to the terror attack against Manchester’s Jewry on Yom Kippur.