Ex-restaurant boss accused of terror plot denies being ‘shameless liar’

Tunisian national Walid Saadaoui, 38, is said to have targeted a mass gathering in the Manchester area and unknowingly laid bare his scheme to an undercover operative.

Saadaoui has told a jury at Preston Crown that he was “playing along” with the operative who he believed to be a supporter of the so-called Islamic State and had intended to sabotage any gun attack by eventually calling the police.

The defendant said he believed the contact was set up as a “test” by a Syrian man who had been threatening him since 2017 after they first met outside a mosque in Norwich.

Saadaoui said he “felt sorry” for Hamdi Almasalkhi, who he referred to as Person A, and gave him money to help him fly home to his family before he later transferred more cash when he was informed they were in peril in their home country.

Soon after Person A revealed himself to be a “mujahideen” and said he would inform the police that Saadaoui had financed an extremist unless he followed his demands, he said.

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Saadaoui said he left his “very successful” Italian restaurant The Albatross in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, in 2023 to evade Person A and begin a new life in Wigan, Greater Manchester, with his second wife, Michelle, and their two children.

But Person A tracked him down soon after and the threats online continued, he said.

On Thursday, jurors were told by prosecutor Harpreet Sandhu KC that police investigations had since identified Person A as Mr Almasalkhi and he had left the UK in 2013 for Syria and had not returned.

Mr Sandhu said: “The reality is that after the summer of 2013 he was not in the UK, was he?”

Saadaoui replied: “He was. I have seen him in 2017 and from that point on about three times after.”

Mr Sandhu showed jurors Mr Almasalkhi’s death certificate which stated he died in February 2021 from natural causes.

The prosecutor said: “He died almost two years before you moved from Great Yarmouth to Wigan, didn’t he?”

Saadaoui said: “No, he didn’t. He is alive.”

Mr Sandhu said: “You have seen the photographs of him dead in hospital, haven’t you?”

Saadaoui said: “I have seen a picture of someone dead. It’s not him. Mr Sandhu. One million per cent it’s not him.”

Mr Sandhu said: “This death certificate undermines your entire defence, doesn’t it?”

The defendant replied: “I know he is not dead.”

Saadaoui said it was an “Isis classic” for someone wanted by police to fake their own death.

Mr Sandhu said: “You know a great deal about Isis because you, Walid Saadaoui, are an Isis supporter?”

Saadaoui said: “I’m not, no.”

Mr Sandhu said: “Your attempt to explain away the contents of this death certificate are an attempt to shift the blame of your terrorist offending on to someone else.”

Saadaoui said: “He is not dead.”

The prosecutor said: “Is the position this, you simply can’t go back and change your account because it would expose that you are a shameless liar.”

Saadaoui said: “I don’t have to change my account, it’s the truth.”

The defendant conceded the only evidence he had of his “seven-year ordeal” of threats in messages, voice notes and phone calls from Mr Almasalkhi was what he himself had told the court.

He said his dealings with the Syrian had led to a “massive understanding” and him now facing trial.

On May 8 last year he was arrested by counter-terrorism officers at a hotel car park in Bolton as he approached the open boot of a car containing two assault rifles, a semi-automatic pistol and almost 200 rounds of ammunition.

Saadaoui, of Abram, Wigan, and his co-defendant Amar Hussein, 52, of no fixed address, deny preparing acts of terrorism between December 13 2023 and May 9 2024.

Saadaoui’s brother Bilel Saadaoui, 36, of Hindley, Wigan, has pleaded not guilty to failing to disclose information about acts of terrorism in the same period.