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Unique: FBI rented Istanbul villa the place ‘Islamic State Beatle’ Aine Davis was caught
Simon Hooper
Fri, 07/01/2022 – 12:00
The FBI rented a luxurious Istanbul villa used as a safehouse by an alleged member of a infamous Islamic State (IS) execution cell in 2015, Center East Eye can reveal.
In an obvious sting operation, the US home intelligence company then tipped off Turkish authorities a couple of purported IS plot to assault town, prompting counter-terrorism police to raid the villa and arrest six males together with Aine Davis, a British man accused of being one of many so-called “Beatles” group.
However Turkish prosecutors ultimately admitted that no proof of a plot – apart from a overseas intelligence report which they dismissed – existed. Davis and two different males have been nonetheless ultimately convicted of membership of IS.
Now, an MEE investigation has uncovered extraordinary new particulars in regards to the case.
MEE has learnt {that a} veteran FBI undercover operative concerned within the operation was himself later jailed within the US, after revealing particulars of his position in entrapment operations – together with heroin smuggling – and threatening his former bosses following his dismissal from the bureau.
The operative, Kamran Faridi, paid the lease and signed a tenancy settlement for the Istanbul property within the seafront suburb of Silivri, the place Davis was captured in a raid by Turkish counter-terrorism police.
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On the time, Turkish officers stated that they had disrupted preparations for a significant IS assault in Istanbul. The raid, on 12 November 2015, befell only a day earlier than IS gunmen and bombers killed 130 individuals in a collection of co-ordinated assaults on the Bataclan theatre, Stade de France and different areas throughout Paris.
However courtroom papers seen by MEE reveal that Turkish prosecutors might discover no proof of any such plot and stated the raid had been prompted by a tip-off a couple of doable assault – from the FBI.
“Ample proof couldn’t be obtained to file a public lawsuit… apart from the intelligence report of a overseas nation, which doesn’t have the standard of proof,” prosecutors stated in a word dated April 2016, which summarised the findings of an investigation into the six males arrested within the raid.
Davis and two different males detained on the villa have been convicted and jailed in Turkey in Might 2017 on a lesser cost of being members of IS. All three males denied that cost.
Three different males – two British nationals and one British-Turkish twin nationwide – arrested within the raid have been launched because of the lack of proof.
It’s unclear whether or not any Turkish officers have been conscious of Faridi’s work for the FBI on the time of the November 2015 raid.
A supply aware of the problem informed MEE the FBI approached Turkish officers in February 2016 to suggest that Faridi might work undercover for Turkish intelligence. However Turkish officers rejected the provide as a result of they stated Faridi had already been uncovered.
The informant
Faridi, 58, is initially from Pakistan. In keeping with particulars of his life first reported by Pakistani media, he “began hustling on the robust streets of Karachi” earlier than migrating to the US in 1991.
He was recruited as an informant by the FBI within the mid-90s to infiltrate an Urdu-speaking prison gang in Atlanta, Georgia.
Within the wake of the 9/11 assaults, Faridi was assigned to the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Activity Drive, travelling to nations together with Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, the United Arab Emirates and Sudan.
He’s stated to have infiltrated al-Qaeda networks around the globe. Sources have informed MEE he was additionally “loaned out” to different western intelligence businesses.
However Faridi was jailed in the US in 2021 over loss of life threats despatched to his former superiors, following his dismissal from the FBI in February 2020.
Faridi is known to have been fired in February 2020 after falling out along with his handlers over an entrapment operation concentrating on a South Asian crime gang, by which FBI informants facilitated a cargo of heroin from Pakistan to the US and laundered a whole bunch of 1000’s of {dollars} linked to medicine trafficking.
The Palestinian
The posh villa in Istanbul, which was rented by Faridi in August 2015, was primarily occupied by the household of a Palestinian refugee, Alwalid Khalid Alagha, the son of an influential jihadist scholar who has been linked to al-Qaeda.
Alagha grew up in Pakistan, to the place his father, Abu al-Walid al-Filistini, travelled within the Nineteen Eighties to hitch Arabs combating in opposition to Soviet forces in Afghanistan.
He lived within the villa along with his two wives, 9 sisters, his mom and 4 youngsters. Throughout his trial, Alagha informed the courtroom his household had come to Turkey as refugees a couple of 12 months and a half earlier.
He stated Faridi was often called a “benevolent particular person” who had helped him discover a appropriate dwelling for his giant household.
Laptops and telephones confiscated within the raid included photographs of Alagha carrying weapons and different materials linking him to Syrian militant teams. Alagha stated he had travelled to Turkey immediately from Pakistan.
Telephone data confirmed that Alagha had been involved with each Aine Davis and Faridi within the days main as much as the raid.
Faridi had left Turkey for New York by way of Amsterdam on 3 November, a bit of over per week earlier than the raid on the villa.
Hyperlinks to Nusra
Alagha was ultimately convicted alongside Davis in Might 2017 of being a member of IS – a cost he strongly denied. Each males, and a Jordanian man, Mohammad Ahmad Hamdan Alkhalaileh, who was additionally arrested on the villa, have been sentenced to seven-and-a-half years in jail.
Alagha and Alkhalaileh have since been launched. MEE reported solely on Thursday that Davis, who’s at present being held in Ankara’s Sincan jail, is now additionally scheduled to be launched and deported to the UK on 9 July.
In transcripts of courtroom hearings seen by MEE, Alagha’s lawyer questioned proof linking Faridi to Jabhat al-Nusra, which prosecutors attributed to “American or British intelligence”.
The Syrian militant group, which was then affiliated to al-Qaeda, subsequently advanced into Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). It at present controls a lot of Idlib province in northwestern Syria.
Alagha’s lawyer stated it was illogical to accuse him of membership of IS as a result of IS and Nusra had fought one another – although Alagha additionally denied any hyperlinks to Nusra.
Davis denied being a member of IS. He stated he had gone to opposition-held Syria to do support work earlier within the nation’s civil warfare however had largely been dwelling in Gaziantep in Turkey.
Throughout the trial, prosecutors cited intercepted telephone messages, which they stated confirmed Davis had been involved with identified IS operatives to request assist crossing the border into Turkey to attend an “necessary assembly” and to “interact in provocative and sensational actions”.
Proof in opposition to Davis additionally included photographs of him holding a gun and posing with males who seemed to be armed militants, British media experiences linking him to the “Beatles” cell, and an Interpol purple discover for his arrest posted by British police.
The purple discover stated materials seized from his spouse’s telephone within the UK included photographs of Davis with “weapons, an Islamic flag, a useless martyr and different people who’re additionally armed”.
It stated he had referred in messages to his spouse to “being ‘on level’, believed to be a reference to assuming essentially the most superior place in a fight navy formation advancing via hostile territory”.
‘Silly photographs’
Davis stated he had gone to Istanbul to accumulate a faux Syrian passport as a result of he had realized of the purple discover for his arrest and didn’t wish to return to the UK.
He dismissed the pictures exhibiting him with militants as “silly photographs” that he had posed for in Idlib in 2013 when the realm was managed by the Free Syrian Military, which was supported within the West.
“Everybody was having photographs taken with armed people like that with a purpose to exhibit,” he informed the courtroom.
Davis denied being a member of the “Beatles” cell. He stated he believed he had been linked to the group as a result of he prayed in the identical London mosque as Mohammed Emwazi, who by then had been recognized within the media because the masked militant dubbed “Jihadi John” liable for a collection of beheadings of western hostages broadcast on IS media channels.
Emwazi was killed in a US drone strike in Raqqa on the identical day Davis was captured in Istanbul.
Two different British nationals linked to the “Beatles” cell have been later captured by US-backed Kurdish forces and handed over into US custody.
Alexanda Kotey was sentenced to life in jail in April after pleading responsible to prison fees referring to the kidnapping, torture and beheading of hostages in Syria. El Shafee Elsheikh was discovered responsible of the identical fees however is but to be sentenced.
Davis’s court-appointed lawyer in Istanbul declined to remark. Alagha declined to talk to MEE.
Karachi heroin
Faridi was sentenced to seven years in jail in November final 12 months for threats made in opposition to his FBI superiors following his dismissal in February 2020.
He stated he was indignant as a result of the bureau owed him 1000’s of {dollars} in unpaid bills, in accordance with experiences of the case.
However Faridi had additionally fallen out along with his bosses over an entrapment operation concentrating on Jabir Motiwala, a Pakistani businessman dealing with extradition to the US from the UK in relation to the medicine trafficking case.
The FBI accused Motiwala of being a senior member of D-Firm, a global crime gang based mostly in India, Pakistan and the UAE, with hyperlinks to militant teams.
Motiwala, who had been imprisoned since his arrest in London in August 2018, maintained his innocence.
He argued he was a sufferer of entrapment after it emerged FBI informants had “tried to facilitate prison dealings” with D-Firm and have been concerned in organising a cargo of heroin from Karachi to New York, which Motiwala is alleged to have profited from.
In keeping with US authorities authorized papers seen by MEE, the plot concerned an FBI informant known as CS-1, who was recognized as “a United States citizen, born in Pakistan, who has posed as a consultant of La Cosa Nostra [the Mafia] and Russian Organised Crime entities based mostly in New York”, and who met Motiwala in Pakistan and the US in 2011 and 2012.
As a part of an FBI investigation, CS-1 laundered roughly $1.4m of purported narcotics proceeds and in 2014 facilitated a cargo of 4kg of heroin from Karachi.
The heroin by no means reached the US, nonetheless. In keeping with the US authorities papers, it was seized en route in Toronto by Canadian police “working along side the FBI”.
‘Extraordinary rendition’
After being dismissed by the FBI, Faridi is known to have given a press release to attorneys in London representing Jabir Motiwala, telling them his superiors ordered him to manufacture proof within the case.
He then flew to London to present proof in Motiwala’s Excessive Court docket enchantment listening to in March 2020.
However Faridi was detained on arrival at Heathrow Airport and returned to the US with out extradition proceedings. The circumstances have been described as an “extraordinary rendition” by one particular person aware of the case.
Motiwala’s attorneys nonetheless introduced Faridi’s assertion on the Excessive Court docket listening to. The US Division of Justice subsequently dropped fees in opposition to Motiwala and withdrew its request for his extradition. Motiwala was launched and returned dwelling to Karachi in April 2021.
In a press release, Motiwala’s attorneys, ABV Solicitors, stated the US Division of Justice had offered no clarification for dropping the fees in opposition to their shopper.
They stated: “It’s strongly suspected that the choice was because of the admission to ABV Solicitors by an FBI informant Kamran Faridi, of being requested by the FBI to border and fabricate proof in opposition to Jabir Siddiq [Motiwala].
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“Kamran Faridi was prevented from offering this proof within the UK extradition proceedings by the FBI. The Excessive Court docket was knowledgeable of those weird circumstances. ABV Solicitors argued that this amounted to an abuse of the courtroom course of as a type of prosecutorial misconduct.”
Center East Eye sought entry to authorized paperwork referring to the Motiwala extradition listening to on the Excessive Court docket in London.
Justice Robert Jay dominated that MEE must be supplied with the paperwork topic to the exclusion of “any materials that’s personal, delicate or whose disclosure would hurt the general public curiosity”.
The redacted paperwork seek advice from an argument made by Motiwala’s attorneys of “abuse of due course of” based mostly upon new proof involving “an individual claiming to be the principal prosecution witness in opposition to the Appellant”. MEE understands this particular person to be Faridi.
MEE sought entry to paperwork referring to Faridi’s case on the New York Southern District Court docket however was informed the case recordsdata have been sealed.
Faridi is known to be looking for to enchantment his conviction however now faces additional fees within the US for speaking to journalists about his work for the FBI. MEE didn’t speak to Faridi in investigating this story and couldn’t attain him for remark.
An FBI spokesperson informed MEE: “The FBI has no remark.”
Ragip Soylu in Ankara and Azad Essa in New York contributed reporting to this story.
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