The man who entered the Beit Yisrael synagogue in the southern United States last Saturday and abducted four worshipers for 10 hours was known at MI5, the kingdom's internal security service, was interrogated by them in 2020 and has a criminal record, according to a report by the BBC.
Malik Faisal Akram, a 44-year-old British citizen from Blackburn in Lancashire County, was included in British intelligence intelligence lists and even interrogated by him in the second half of 2020, yet his name was moved from a "stakeholder" list to a "negligible" list.
The hostages at the Texas synagogue were rescued after 12 hours, the kidnapper killed // Photo: Reuters
The new details were revealed against the background of the arrest of two young men in the city of Manchester on suspicion that they were connected to a terrorist who was killed after a shootout with local security forces in Texas when a question broke into the scene.
The two suspects are still being investigated.
"I can see they are good guys," Faisal Akram said after being invited into the synagogue by Congregationalist Charlie Citron Walker at an event that ended after 10 hours of nerve-wracking, with no casualties other than the terrorist.
At the same time, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation is conducting the investigation as a terrorist attack, which casts a light on Faisal Akram's possible affiliation with one of the extremist Islamic organizations, although so far no organization has claimed responsibility for the incident. The terrorist sought the release of Afia Sidiki, a Pakistani neurologist who is being held in a federal prison in Texas on suspicion of having links to the al-Qaeda terrorist organization.
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