New video footage has emerged of one of the suspects accused of involvement in an alleged Islamist terrorist plot to attack Britain.
In the video filmed five years ago, Tarik Hassane, now 21, gives an insight into his background as he talks of being “broke” and playing football for an inner-city team in west London.
Hassane was then a football-loving teenager who went on to study medicine. On Friday he was one of five men being questioned by counter-terrorism detectives over a suspected plot that may have involved firearms.
Hassane was a member of FC Kensington and match reports show he scored for his side.
In the club’s promotional video from 2009-10, Hassane said: “They let us train for free, every Wednesday, because some of us are broke.”
Friends confirmed the youth in the video was Hassane and an official confirmed he played for the club. He played alongside school-friend Gusai Abuzeid, who was also detained on Tuesday over the alleged plot.
Each of the five men arrested, all aged between 20 and 21, were friends and went to Westminster City school near Buckingham Palace in central London. Those named so far include Hassane, Abuzeid and Rawan Kheder, 20.
The arrest of Kheder surprised his neighbours in Kensington, west London, because his father, Emin Kheder, is well-respected as the director of a family-run plumbing firm and a trustee of the Kurdish Council of Imams and Preachers.
Another of those arrested, aged 20, was a prize-winning maths student who went on to study physics at a top London university. The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was also detained on Tuesday but his arrest was only confirmed by police on Thursday night for “operational reasons”.
One of the raids used armed officers because it was believed a suspect may have had access to weapons.
Detectives are investigating what links, if any, the suspects may have had to people who the security services regard as extremist or even linked to violence.
One line of inquiry is understood to include any possible internet contact with people abroad who the security services are monitoring or have an interest in as their fears grow of an attempt to attack Britain.
However, friends of the men insist those arrested have nothing to do with terrorism or violence.
Wilson Weaver, 20, who describes himself as a practising Christian, told the Guardian he had known Hassane from school since the age of 11 and his friend had never said anything suggesting he supported violence.
Weaver, an English literature student at Liverpool University, said Hassane was a model citizen who had risen from a humble background to train for a career as a doctor.
“He’s always been a smart kid, he was named ‘The Surgeon’ at school because he wanted to be a doctor since the age of 11,” he said. “Ever since I’ve known him he’s been a Muslim and devout. I am prepared to go out on a limb, in the face of the newspapers lies and misrepresentations: there is nothing in him for me to believe he is a terrorist. I’ve not heard anyone say he’s become more extreme.”
Andrew Scott, 20, a friend of Hassane and Abuzeid for nearly a decade, said: “Gusai was a laugh and a joke to be around. Loved his football, hard-working, he never had his heart in the wrong place.
“Both him and Tarik had morals, and their morals were never wrong, simple as that. Both had the correct morals: anti-violence. As far as I know, both never got into trouble.”
