AN illegal migrant who has been jailed for raping a woman in Hyde Park and was being housed in a Hilton hotel is also a convicted Islamic terrorist, a report says.
Abdelrahmen Adnan Abouelela, 42, was given a seven-year jail sentence on May 5, 2015, having been found guilty in his absence of being a member of a bomb-making cell in Egypt.
Abdelrahmen Adnan Abouelela, was sentenced at Southwark Crown Court earlier this week, having been found guilty of rapeMetropolitan Police
Metropolitan PoliceAbouelela was given a seven-year jail sentence on May 5, 2015, having been found guilty in his absence of being a member of a bomb-making cell in Egypt[/caption]
TripAdvisorThe illegal migrant was being housed at Hampton by Hilton Hotel in Ealing, West London[/caption]
Abouelela, along with six other men, were said to be responsible for making explosives in a safe house flat in order to carry out “terrorist” acts, including blowing up electricity pylons and gas pipes.
The Egyptian is said to have been a member of the Muslim Brotherhood and fled the country before he could be convicted, the Daily Mail reports.
He arrived in Britain in April 2023 and claimed asylum.
While is application was being considered he was housed in hotel accommodation.
Abouelela was able to walk about freely and posed for a selfie photo in January last year during a visit to the Imperial War Museum North Museum in Trafford, Greater Manchester.
According to court records in Egypt, Abouelela and the other men rented an apartment in the Ebnia Baitak area of the 10th of Ramadan City, which lies east of Cairo, where they made their bombs.
Abouelela lured his victim to a secluded spot in the central London park to carry out his depraved attack on November 4 last year.
At the time he was being put up at the four-star Hilton Hotel in Ealing.
On May 22 this year he was convicted of rape at Southwark Crown Court and was sentenced to eight and a half years behind bars on Tuesday.
Judge Gregory Perrins said at the sentencing hearing: “You thought absolutely nothing of her.”
The judge added: “It must have been obvious to you that she was a woman under the influence of alcohol who was alone and vulnerable.
“You made the decision to take advantage of her vulnerability.
“You were driven purely by your own sexual desires. You simply did not care that she could not consent: you just took what you wanted.”
Judge Perrins also said Abouelela was in the country illegally and had claimed asylum due to fears of being persecuted in Egypt, having claimed he had been held as a political prisoner and tortured.
Defence barrister Kane Sharpe said he had been diagnosed with emotionally unstable personality disorder and complex PTSD.
The judge though said he found the mitigating factors to be “minimal”, saying: “There is little connection between those circumstances and your decision to rape the victim on that night.
“It’s clear to me you do not believe you have done anything wrong.”
The judge also commended the victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, for her “immense bravery and courage” in giving evidence during the trial.
FLED TO TURKEY
Having fled Egypt, it’s thought Abouelela lived in Malaysia and Sudan and is said to have first claimed political asylum having arrived in Turkey.
He was held for at least 72 days at Ataturk airport, Istanbul, after his request for asylum was said to have been turned down by the Turkish authorities in early 2019.
Abouelela battled the Turkish authorities, who tried to extradite him back to Egypt but he was eventually allowed to stay in Turkey.
While he was being detained, he appeared in a video posted online where he said in Arabic he was part of the Egyptian “opposition”.
He said: “I don’t know what will happen to me.”
Despite the video it appears from social media posts and his LinkedIn profile he was allowed to stay in Turkey, a country that has expressed support for the Muslim Brotherhood in recent years.
According to his Facebook profile, he got married in December 2020 and later had a child with his wife.
He then arrived in the UK in April 2023, claiming he would face persecution if he returned to Egypt.
It is not known if he was forced to leave Turkey or left of his own volition, although during his court appearance this week it was revealed his wife and child are still in Turkey.
Under the UK’s Borders Act 2007 Abouelela faces automatic deportation having served his sentence for rape because he will have served a sentence of more than a year in prison.
MEMBER OF THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD
A report in 2019 about his detention at Ataturk airport by the Arabic news channel Al Arabiya revealed Abouelela’s membership of the Muslim Brotherhood or one of its affiliates.
The Muslim Brotherhood is not banned in the UK but is regarded as a terror organisation in a number of countries.
According to the report, Abouelela had moved to Turkey from Sudan, but faced extradition back to Turkey on “explicit terrorism charges”.
While in Turkey, he posted a number of religious messages on Facebook and criticised the regime under president Abdel Fattah Saeed Hussein Khalil el-Sisi.
He is said to have described the members of the Muslim Brotherhood as his “brothers” in one post and also described how he had been imprisoned in Egypt in 2015 by the “dogs” of the el-Sisi regime, in another post.
Having arrived in the UK he also marked the 11th anniversary of the Rabaa massacre in Cairo when El-Sisi, then the defence minister, cleared two camps of supporters of ousted Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi, killing hundreds of civilians.
In a post in Arabic which referenced those who died on August 14, 2013, he said: “Oh God, make their blood a curse on their killers”.
The Muslim Brotherhood was founded in Egypt in 1928 and came to the UK around 60 years ago.
Rather than a single entity it is a collection of loosely associated groups.
When prime minister, David Cameron decided not to ban the movement in 2015 even though “closely associated” individuals supported suicide bombings and other attacks by Hamas on Israel.
While not banning the group, Mr Cameron said that membership or association with the Brotherhood should “be considered as a possible indicator of extremism”, and that the movement’s activities should be kept under review.
Countries including Austria, Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates have labelled and banned the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organisation.
TripAdvisorThe Hampton by Hilton Hotel in Ealing is rated as having four stars[/caption]
FacebookJudge Perrins said Abouelela was in the country illegally and had claimed asylum due to fears of being persecuted in Egypt, saying he had been held as a political prisoner and tortured[/caption]
FacebookOn May 22 this year he was convicted of rape and was sentenced to eight and a half years behind bars on Tuesday[/caption] Published: [#item_custom_pubDate]
