Amal el-Wahabi

Amal el-Wahabi is the first United Kingdom woman to be convicted of a terrorism related offence associated with the uprising in Syria.[1]

El-Wahabi was born in the United Kingdom to parents who were immigrants from Morocco.[2] She attended Holland Park Comprehensive, a school some reporters dubbed "The UK's 'School for Jihadis'", when the press realized that multiple graduates appeared to have an association with terrorism.

El-Wahabi was convicted of funding terrorism, for trying to send 20,000 euros to her husband, Aine Lesley Davis, described in court as a fighter to the short-lived Daesh "Islamic State".[3]

El-Wahabi and Davis met at her mosque's daycare, when they were 19 years old. The pair had two children together.[3] Prior to his July 2013 departure for occupied Syria Davis had worked as a drug dealer, and was convicted on drug and weapons charges[4].

After his departure el-Wahabi had asked a friend, from Holland Park Comprehensive, Nawal Msaad, to smuggle the funds to Turkey, in her underwear.[3] [The Mirror], and other newspapers reporting on the trial, described Msaad as having been duped into smuggling funds, without realizing the funds were intended to support terrorism.[5] Msaad was acquitted. El-Wahabi, on the other hand, was believed to know that funds sent to Davis would be supporting terrorism, and was convicted.

In November 2014 el-Wahabi received a 28 month sentence, only half of which she would have to serve in custody.[1]

References

  1. 1 2 Dominic Casciani (2014-11-13). "Woman jailed for funding Syria jihad". BBC News. Retrieved 2018-02-10. Davis, a former drug dealer with a conviction for possessing a firearm, left the UK in July 2013.
  2. ↑ Lamiat Sabin (2014-11-04). "I went to the UK's 'School of Jihadis', and I can't believe how it has been treated by the press". The Independent. Retrieved 2018-02-11. I was an HPS pupil from 1998 to 2005, and my year included two women, Nawal Msaad and Amal El Wahabi, who were tried at the Old Bailey this year over charges of funding terrorism.
  3. 1 2 3 "Two unlikely jihadis: the 'weed-smoking kaffir' and the ignorant dupe". The Guardian. 2014-08-13. Retrieved 2018-02-11. Davis and Wahabi had met when she was 19 at her local mosque near Portobello Road. Her parents never approved as they were suspicious of the origins of the plentiful cash Davis produced with no job or salary to his name. Davis had convictions for possessing a firearm and for possession of cannabis, but was suspected of drug-dealing on a wider scale.
  4. ↑ Simon Hooper (2017-05-09). "British 'Islamic State Beatle' jailed in Turkish trial". Middle East Eye. Archived from the original on 2017-08-30. Retrieved 2018-02-10. Aine Davis is alleged to have been a close associate of Muhammed Emwazi, the IS executioner dubbed “Jihadi John,” who appeared in a series of beheading videos in 2014 and 2015. He was one of the so-called “Beatles,” a quartet of British IS militants tasked with guarding foreign prisoners in Raqqa, according to media reports and the accounts of former captives.
  5. ↑ Anthony Bond (2014-11-13). "ISIS: Young mum jailed after trying to send cash to Jihadi husband fighting in Syria". The Mirror (UK). Archived from the original on 2014-11-14. Retrieved 2018-02-11. Amal El-Wahabi, 28, hoodwinked an old school friend into agreeing to take £15,830 in cash to Turkey for her husband Aine Davis, a drug dealer who went to Syria to fight in July last year.
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