UK: Man sentenced to 3 years for aiding bomb suspect

LONDON

A southwest London court on Monday has sentenced a Birmingham man to three years in jail for providing £3,000 ($3,700) to a key suspect in the deadly Paris and Brussels terror attacks.

Zakaria Boufassil, 26, was convicted on Dec. 6 by the Kingstown Crown Court for engaging in conduct in preparation of acts of terrorism and was thus sentenced to three years in prison.

Brussels bombing suspect Mohamed Abrini, also known as the “man in the hat”, received £3,000 in cash from Boufassil during a meeting at Small Heath Park in Birmingham in July 2015, the court heard.

Boufassil admitted at the trial that he had indeed met Abrini in the park.

An accomplice Mohammed Ali Ahmed, a British national who pleaded guilty earlier, was sentenced to eight years in prison.

At least 130 people were killed and hundreds were injured after a coordinated armed attack in the French capital on Nov. 13, 2015.

On March 22, 2016, a suicide attack was carried out at Zaventem Airport and Maelbeek metro station in Brussels, killing 32 people and wounding 270 others.

Daesh claimed responsibility for both attacks. Mohamed Abrini was pictured in CCTV footage walking alongside two bombers who later killed themselves in the Zaventem Airport attack and became known as “the man in the hat”.