Menni: An accomplished liar and master of disguise

News Reporter

Saturday 21 July 2012

NASSERDINE Menni was convicted after an international terror probe which pulled together the investigative expertise of the FBI, the French security service, Swedish police, Algerian and Kuwaiti authorities and, in Scotland, the Crown Office and Strathclyde Police.

TERROR: Video image, above, showing emergency services after a car exploded in the centre of Stockholm; Nasserdine Menni, left; and an image used in evidence. Main picture: AP

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Menni, an al Qaeda sympathiser, had spent so many years masked in numerous fake identities investigators were faced with unravelling layers of mystery and deception in a bid to nail their man.

Believed to be an Algerian native – his mother and some siblings are resident there –Menni has consistently declined his right to consular assistance following his arrest and throughout the trial. His age remains unclear, estimated at around 31 or 32.

What is known about him is that he is a master of disguise, leaving a false trail at every turn and using at least seven identities, all with different ages and nationalities.He first arrived in the UK in 2005, taking up a well-paid job with the Magna Seating car factory in Luton, Bedfordshire, under the guise of a French national named Emmanuel Bernard. It was during his time in Luton he first encountered Stockholm bomber, Taimour Abdulwahab. Three-and-a-half years later, on April 15, 2009, Menni vanished after taking an unauthorised absence from work. He travelled to Liverpool where he lodged a phoney claim for asylum in the UK, posing as a Bedouin Kuwaiti fleeing persecution in his home country. He was even said by native speakers to have mimicked a highly convincing Kuwaiti accent.It was the first step in an attempt to erase any connection with his previous false identity and distance himself from any connection with Abdulwahab as they embarked on their terror plot. While Abdulwahab trained at terror camps in Iraq and Syria, Menni – who was given residency in Glasgow while his asylum claim was processed –funnelled money to his accomplice via various counterfeit bank accounts. Prosecutor Andrew Miller, in his closing speech at the trial, suggested the motive for why a man who had a settled life in Luton, earning a good income would suddenly uproot.Mr Miller added: "He had put himself at the hands of the UK Border Agency, who could put him anywhere they saw fit."It was a dramatic change. The effect of the asylum claim was to create distance between himself and Abdulwahab and provide financial support. He had a new identity and he was able to falsely claim benefits."Once in Glasgow, Menni obtained work using false papers at various bars and clubs in the city as a glass-collector and as a kitchen porter in restaurants in the Merchant City, including Balthassar in Ingram Street and Mercado in Bell Street. He also did volunteer work for Sense Scotland, organising activities for young people with special needs.At the same time, he is said to have fraudulently obtained more than £20,000 in housing and council tax benefits, Jobseeker's allowance and financial support.In December 2010 the net began closing in on Menni after his friend, Abdulwahab, killed himself and injured two others in an explosion near one of Stockholm's main shopping thoroughfares. Menni may have been living under the radar 700 miles away in Glasgow but two phone calls made by Abdulwahab hours before the bombing were quickly traced to a mobile in the Scottish city, subsequently identified as belonging to Menni, and within several days they had honed in on their suspect.Bank account activity showed his financial transfers to Abdulwahab, which totalled £5725, were always made in cash, as Menni would withdraw money and deposit it into the bomber's account rather than use direct debits or standing orders.Police traced him to an asylum hostel in Curle Street, in the Whiteinch area of the city, and embarked on an programme of surveillance and investigation, picking apart a web of false identities with the help of Menni's various employers, banks and laptops he had borrowed.They discovered daily telephone and email contact between Menni and Abdulwahab stretching back years, including a tearful voicemail left by Menni on Abdulwahab's mobile days after the bombing asking his friend: "Why did you kill yourself?"After three months of surveillance, on March 7, 2011, Menni's 19th-floor tower block flat in Whiteinch was raided and he was arrested. He was questioned by detectives for five days, answering every question with "no comment".Speaking after Menni was convicted yesterday, Detective Chief Superintendent John Cuddihy, from Strathclyde Police, said: "He was an accomplished liar."

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Menni: An accomplished liar and master of disguise

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