IS-Inspired Terrorists Sentenced to Life for Plotting Massacre in Manchester
Two fanatics who swore allegiance to Islamic State and plotted to massacre "as many Jewish people as they could" have been jailed for life. Walid Saadaoui, 38, and Amar Hussein, 52, planned what police believe would have been the UK's worst terrorist attack had it not been foiled.
Details of the Foiled Plot
The court heard they planned a marauding attack in Greater Manchester, at the heart of one of Europe's largest Jewish communities. Their targets included schools and synagogues, with Saadaoui stating that Jews were the main target of the assault planned for summer 2024 - with the deaths of any Christians described as 'a bonus'.
Saadaoui was sentenced to life with a minimum of 37 years behind bars. Judge Mr Justice Wall told Saadaoui: "You have shown no remorse for your actions, nor any acceptance of guilt throughout your trial." Sentencing Amar Hussein to life with a minimum of 26 years, the judge blasted him for his "cowardice" in not attending his own sentencing hearing.
Undercover Operation Foils Deadly Plan
The court heard they were inspired by the 2015 terror attacks in Paris which left 130 dead and had answered an Islamic State "call to arms" issued after the outbreak of war in Gaza. Saadaoui arranged for the purchase and delivery of semi-automatic rifles, conducted reconnaissance and identified targets - but the man supplying them with the weapons was an undercover operative.
The operative, known to them as Farouk, had infiltrated jihadist social media networks and convinced Saadaoui that he was a fellow extremist. Farouk duped the jihadists into believing a cache of assault rifles, handguns and hundreds of rounds of ammunition was being transported to the UK on a cross-Channel ferry.
At their sentencing hearing, prosecutor Harpreet Sandhu KC said: "These defendants were prepared to kill several hundred people. Had the preparations for mass murder been enacted, the defendants would have committed one of the deadliest attacks involving firearms in the UK's history, and certainly the worst firearms attack against the Jewish community."
Arrest and Trial Proceedings
Saadaoui, a former Italian restaurant owner, was arrested in a police sting as he attempted to take possession of two assault rifles, a semi-automatic pistol and almost 200 rounds of ammunition at the car park of the Last Drop hotel in Bolton in May 2024. The weapons were the type used in Paris in November 2015.
Saadaoui and Hussein were found guilty of preparing acts of terrorism between December 2023 and May 2024 at Preston Crown Court in December. Jurors took just two days to convict them following a trial lasting almost three months.
A third defendant, Walid's brother Bilel Saadaoui, 36, who worked in a discount shop, was found guilty of failing to disclose information about acts of terrorism.
Police and Community Response
Following the guilty verdicts, Greater Manchester Police Assistant Chief Constable 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."
The plot was foiled just over a year before two Jewish men died in the Manchester synagogue attack in October 2025 during Yom Kippur. The Campaign Against Antisemitism said the plot was "a reminder that what happened on Bondi Beach on December 14 could just as easily have happened here in Britain".
The head of the Crown Prosecution Service's special crime and counter-terrorism division, Frank Ferguson, 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."
