A man suspected of links to Hamas allegedly plotted a massacre targeting Jews from his home in suburban Britain, according to German prosecutors.
Mohammed Alfatih is accused by German authorities of masterminding a plan to launch an attack on the second anniversary of October 7.
The case has raised questions about how Alfatih was granted asylum in 2015 and British citizenship six years later. Those decisions allowed him to establish a life in the UK despite allegations that he had previously worked as a bodyguard for a Hamas leader.
Alfatih, 40, is fighting extradition after prosecutors in Berlin accused the Birmingham-based IT consultant and several others of planning attacks on synagogues and Jewish sites in Germany and Austria using automatic weapons. The alleged plot was disrupted after Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency provided a tip-off.
Before coming to Britain, Alfatih—the son of senior Hamas figure Bassem Naim—allegedly served as a bodyguard to then-Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and was frequently photographed alongside him.
He is understood to have entered the UK illegally in 2014, concealed in the back of a lorry. Sources told the Daily Mail that he later secured asylum after claiming he had been persecuted in Egypt.
Former Conservative minister Zac Goldsmith said last night: ‘This needs to be forensically examined so we can understand exactly how this and so many similar decisions are made.
‘Otherwise it will continue to happen no matter who is in charge. We need to know if this is happening to us because of malignancy in the state, or because of chronic institutional incompetence.’
German authorities accuse Mohammed Alfatih of masterminding a plot to attack on the second anniversary of October 7
Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniya, surrounded by security personnel and supporters, returns to Gaza City after visiting Arab countries and Iran. Alfatih, his alleged bodyguard, is circled
Emma Schubart, a research fellow at the Henry Jackson Society, said: ‘This is a damning indictment of Britain’s asylum system. A former bodyguard to Ismail Haniyeh, and the son of a senior Hamas figure, was able to enter the UK, receive asylum in 2015, gain citizenship and live openly in Birmingham while allegedly helping to prepare a massacre of Jews in Europe.
‘The fact that his links [to Hamas] were public knowledge yet he was still granted refuge raises serious questions about basic vetting by the Home Office and security services.
‘Hamas is a proscribed terrorist organisation. Cases like this show that the threat is not confined to Gaza or the Middle East; it is already operating from our own streets.’
German prosecutors describe Alfatih as a ‘high-ranking Hamas foreign operative with direct links to the leadership circle of the Hamas Politburo’.
An indictment against seven other alleged members of the network, who are already in Bundespolizei custody, claims that Alfatih collected five guns from Berlin’s Hasenheide Park on July 28 last year.
He is accused of taking the weapons to Vienna, where he allegedly concealed them in a storage unit alongside ‘disguise materials, including a scarf, hat and gloves’.
Prosecutors also allege that Alfatih filmed a ‘confession video’ for the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s military wing, which was intended for release after the attack. In the four-and-a-half-minute recording, a figure wearing a red T-shirt and with most of his face covered threatens to send a ‘message in blood’ to ‘despicable war criminal’ Benjamin Netanyahu as ‘revenge’ for Israel’s alleged ‘genocide’ in Gaza.
The indictment says British police found the footage on a computer memory card seized from Alfatih. A red polo shirt was also reportedly recovered from the wardrobe at his Kings Heath home in Birmingham, where he lived with his wife and three children.
Suspected Hamas operative Mohammed Alfatih Naim, also known as Mohammed Naim, attacks Kevin Bucknall on Fairfield Road in Kings Heath, Birmingham
Alfatih, who will face separate proceedings in Germany from the other seven defendants, allegedly flew back to Berlin before a customs inspection found a forged Greek identity document and driving licence in his possession. He later returned to Britain.
Investigators began making arrests on October 1 last year after observing an alleged weapons handover involving other members of the suspected cell in a Berlin courtyard. The cache reportedly contained an assault rifle, eight Glock 26 semi-automatic pistols and more than 600 rounds of live ammunition.
The suspected cell is believed to have targeted Israeli diplomats, Jewish community centres and pro-Israel demonstrations. Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said: ‘It is sick that a man accused of plotting to massacre Jews could do it from a terraced house in Birmingham.’
Alfatih was arrested under the German extradition warrant last November while on remand over an attack on bailiff Kevin Bucknall outside his Birmingham home. The incident followed a dispute over unpaid parking tickets.
Extradition proceedings were put on hold until the trial concluded. Reporting restrictions also prevented Alfatih from being identified publicly until the case ended.
During an eight-day trial at Birmingham Crown Court, jurors saw footage of Alfatih holding a knife and lunging towards the driver’s window of Mr Bucknall’s van. He was convicted of wounding, two counts of possessing a knife unlawfully and criminal damage, but was acquitted of wounding with intent.
He will be sentenced at a later date. If extradition is approved by the UK courts, Alfatih is expected to serve any custodial sentence in Britain before being transferred to Germany.
At a hearing in April, prosecutor Matthew Brook KC said Alfatih’s phones contained ‘various Hamas material’. He also told the court that publicly available photographs showed ‘that the defendant was a Hamas bodyguard in Gaza for the then-leader of Hamas’.
The court heard that West Midlands Police had questioned Alfatih twice about the ‘Hamas material’, but that he declined to comment on both occasions.
The Home Office said: ‘There can be no place in our society for those who engage in violence or seek to facilitate terrorist attacks against innocent people.
‘Hamas is a proscribed terrorist organisation, and we condemn those who choose to support its activities and further its aims.’