It could have been ‘the deadliest terror attack’ in UK history had the operation not been thwarted, according to one of the country’s most senior counter terrorism officers
Two men have been found guilty of plotting the Islamic State-inspired mass murder of Jews in Manchester. Walid Saadaoui, 38, of Crankwood Road, Abram, Wigan, and Amar Hussein, 52, of no fixed address, denied terror charges.
But today (Tuesday, December 2) they were found guilty following a trial which began in October 2025.
They have been convicted of preparation of terrorist acts, namely that between December 13, 2023, and May 9, 2024, with the intention of committing acts of terrorism, they arranged for the purchase and delivery of firearms, conducted reconnaissance and made plans of attack.
A third defendant, Walid’s brother, Bilel Saadaoui, 36, of Fairclough Street, Hindley, Wigan, pleaded not guilty to a single charge of failing to disclose acts of terrorism between the same dates. The jury found him guilty by majority.
It could have been ‘the deadliest terror attack’ in UK history had the operation not been thwarted, according to one of the country’s most senior counter terrorism officers.
Assistant Chief Constable Rob Potts, the head of Counter Terrorism Policing in the north west, said: “Ultimately, the plans that Walid Saadaoui and Amar Hussein were making had they come to fruition would have resulted in my view what’s highly likely to be if not the deadliest terror attack in UK history.
“I hasten to add that the control around this operation and investigation was such that they were never ever going to get anywhere near being able to achieve that.”
It emerged during the trial that Walid Saadaoui and Hussein discussed targeting a talk where Countdown presenter Rachel Riley was due to be ‘in conversation’.
Prosecutor Harpreet Sabdhu KC said Walid Saadaoui ‘hero-worshipped’ the mastermind of the 2015 terror attacks in Paris, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, a marauding gun massacre which left 130 dead and hundreds wounded.
The trial at Preston Crown Court heard Tunisia-born holiday camp entertainer turned restaurateur Walid Saadaoui was an Islamic State fanatic, but his plot was thwarted thanks to an undercover operative posing as a fellow IS enthusiast – named only ‘Farouk’ during the trial.
Police believe the operation thwarted a potential massacre.
By late 2023 Walid Saadaoui was posting anti-Semitic hatred on a series of Facebook pages and expressing support for the terror group Islamic State.
He glorified the attack on the twin towers in New York. He even posted an image of one of the burning towers on the 22nd anniversary of the 2001 attack, including a picture of one of the towers on fire with the words “Oh God: a day like this… In this very year.”
He spewed hatred of Jews on a series of Facebook accounts he set up in false names. After Walid expressed hatred of Jews by posting about Abaaoud on one of these accounts, Farouk sent Walid a friend request which was accepted on December 13, 2023.
It was the start of a huge police investigation.
Saadaoui knew the undercover agent as Abu Bilal, a man who could speak French and Arabic. During the trial he gave evidence from behind a screen and was referred to as ‘Farouk’. Neither was his real name, which has never been made public to protect him from reprisals.
The pair met in person for the first time in Queens Park in Bolton on February 10, 2024. Farouk told trial the defendant appeared ‘nervous’ and ‘unpredictable’ at first. It later emerged Walid had brought a knife.
The undercover operative told the trial it was only by the following month that Walid believed he was a fellow terrorist.
Farouk told the jury: “I felt like, the easiest way to explain, I felt like he dropped his guard now where he believed I was an ISIS follower willing to participate in the plan. I believed at this point he trusted me fully.”
The fanatic confessed he had tried to join many Jewish Facebook groups to get intelligence on up-coming gatherings. His aim was to to target a pro-Israel march in Manchester.
He managed to persuade the administrator of a group called ‘Manchester Jewish Community’ he was a member of a synagogue in Croydon and had recently moved to Manchester.
The pair started messaging each other and eventually met in person, with Walid Saadaoui unaware he was under surveillance and that his incriminating conversations with the agent were being recorded.
On March 16, 2024, Walid Saadaoui and co-defendant Amar Hussein, a Kuwaiti national originally from Kurdish Iraq, were captured on police surveillance conducting a reconnaissance exercise at the port of Dover through which they believed guns and ammunition for the attack were to be smuggled. They were captured at the National Trust’s White Cliffs park viewing the port below through binoculars.
The following day Walid Saadaoui escorted Farouk on a tour of potential targets in Cheetham Hill, Higher Broughton and Prestwich, walking by schools, synagogues and shops.
The defendant was recorded saying he wanted to target a pro-Israel march and then Jews in north Manchester. They walked by Lubavitch Boys School, King David School (both its primary and secondary schools); Tashbar School; Mechinoh L’yeshiva school; Lubavitch synagogue; Bnei Akiva youth club; Habonim nursery; and Holy Law synagogue. All in Broughton Park which is home to a large Jewish community.
The pair then walked into K Outlet supermarket. Saadaoui discussed with the agent the fine detail of how they would open fire on shoppers.
Later the pair discussed targeting a talk due to take place the following month where Countdown presenter Rachel Riley was due to be ‘in conversation’.
During their stroll through the heart of the city’s Jewish communities, Walid Saadaoui was captured saying ‘the worship of Jihad that is obligatory’ as he whipped himself into a frenzy of anti-Semitic hatred.
Walid Saadaoui was ‘caught red-handed’, according to the prosecution, in the car park of The Last Drop hotel north of Bolton on May 8, 2024, when Farouk arrived for a handover of the weapons.
Counter terror cops had observed him travelling south to Dover the previous day with Amar Hussein, where they believed Farouk would be crossing The Channel in a car packed with guns and ammunition for the attack. Actually, there were no weapons. But it was part of the story told to them by Farouk.
Walid dropped off Amar Hussein and then went to the Last Drop hotel car park for what he believed would be the handover of the weapons. He was unaware he was being watched and about to be caught.
Two assault rifles, a semi-automatic pistol and almost 200 rounds of ammunition were in the boot of Farouk’s car for what the prosecution said was to be a handover. Far from being smuggled across The Channel hours earlier, the perfectly safe deactivated weapons had been placed in Farouk’s Lexus moments before the meet.
Police body-cam footage captured Walid running away but was caught very close by.
Walid was also awaiting delivery of a further two assault rifles, another pistol and another 700 rounds of ammunition, according to the Crown.
His home in Crankood Road in Wigan was searched and buried in concrete under an outhouse in the back garden police found a safe with £74,000 cash inside a rucksack.
He had also penned a will and arranged for driving lessons for his wife. For the police, Walid was preparing for martyrdom and the cash and driving lessons were making his planned death easier for his wife and two children.
Farouk spent more than two weeks in the witness box going through his many interactions with Saadaoui, unseen and speaking from behind a screen. Only the jury and lawyers could see him and he remained beyond the view of the press, public and the defendants during the trial.
Walid Saadaoui told the trial he was being pressured by someone from Islamic State and claimed he intended to sabotage the plot at the last moment and call police. He claimed he thought Farouk had been sent to test his commitment to carrying out an attack.
He told the trial he was simply a hard working family man who, since he had arrived from his homeland Tunisia, had worked in a Haven holiday village in Essex and also owned and ran an Italian restaurant in Great Yarmouth. He claimed his move north was to escape the clutches of a shadowy figure from IS he said was threatening to kill him.
The police established that the shadowy IS terrorist was a real person, but had long since died. The prosecutor called Walid Saadaoui a ‘shameless liar’.
Amar Hussein didn’t give evidence in the trial. In fact, he barely spent any time in court having been thrown out of the dock by the judge three times for outbursts.
During his police interviews, he openly admitted he was a terrorist. He told police: “Terrorism is our religion… Quran say terrorism is normal… we are proud, we say terrorism is proud.”
Instead of answering questions on some occasion he just quoted the Quran at police. He lambasted the interviewing officers for talking ‘s**t’ and ‘fantasy’. He later told officers: “I’m proud [to] be terrorist here. You know? I’m proud! And Quran is say, ‘be terrorist”, you know? That’s God! We are proud of this.”
By their verdicts, the jury dismissed the claims of both men.
‘They laid bare their intention to destroy lives’
Following the verdicts, Assistant Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police Robert Potts said: “What Walid Saadaoui was trying to achieve was a terrorist attack on the Jewish community that given the weaponry and ammunition involved could potentially have been the deadliest terrorist attack in UK history.
“Some of the things he said made it very clear that he regarded a less sophisticated attack with less lethal weaponry as not being good enough as he saw it was his duty to kill as many Jewish people as he could. That wasn’t going to be achieved via the use of a knife, or potentially a vehicle, as a weapon.
“There was very real risk and danger for Farouk who undoubtedly saved lives. I cannot overemphasise his courage, bravery and professionalism in the role that he played.
“It was intrinsic to our ability to continue to develop the investigation and allow Walid to continue with his plans up until the point, working with the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), we were satisfied that we had sufficient evidence to get the most significant charges authorised.”
Frank Ferguson, head of the CPS’s special crime and counter-terrorism division, said: “The investigation and prosecution deployed a highly trained witness who made sure their plot did not succeed and secured valuable evidence directly from the mouths of the terrorists.
“They laid bare their intention to destroy lives, their long-held attitudes and beliefs as well as their Isis credentials.”
