 A Birmingham Al Qaeda suspect being held in Guantanamo Bay has links with a convicted terrorist dating back to 1995, the Evening Mail can reveal today.
Moazzam Begg (pictured above), from Sparkhill, who is accused of training at terror camps, recruiting for terrorist organisations and helping to fund Al Qaeda, was jointly charged with Shahid Akram Butt (pictured below) for benefit fraud eight years ago.
In 2000, Butt, from Small Heath, was jailed for five years in Yemen for plotting a bombing campaign. In the same case Malik Nasser Harha, 26, also from Small Heath, was sentenced to seven years for conspiracy to form an armed gang while Mustapha Kamil, son of Abu Hamza, the hook-handed cleric fighting deportation from Britain, was also jailed for three years. Also sentenced to conspiracy was Londoner Mohsin Ghalain, 18, who was jailed for seven years.
 In 1995 Begg was working as an interpreter for the Benefits Agency in Union Street, Birmingham. He was initially arrested and charged with fraud but the charges were dropped because of a lack of evidence. However, his co-defendant Butt was sentenced to 18 months in prison in June 1995 at Birmingham Crown Court. Butt, who was living at Ombersley Road, Balsall Heath, was convicted of four counts of obtaining money by deception from the Department of Social Security to the sum of £10,677.56, between July 1993 and May 1994. Mr Begg, who was arrested 18 months ago in Islamabad where he had gone to work as a teacher, is currently awaiting trial at the notorious prison camp in Cuba with fellow Briton Feroz Abbasi, aged 23. Earlier this week Attorney General Lord Goldsmith revealed both men would be spared the death penalty and would be able to choose lawyers and be tried in public, subject to security. But they may still face a military tribunal. It is the second time the 35-year-old father of four has been investigated for terrorism links. He was arrested under anti-terrorism laws in 2000 during a raid on the Maktabah Al Ansar bookshop, Ladypool Road, Sparkhill, but was released without charge. His family told the Evening Mail this week they were relieved to hear the death penalty threat had been removed and still vehemently deny Moazzam is a terrorist. "My son is an innocent family man," said his father Azmat Begg. "I want my son to come back to this country. "He will not receive justice where he is now," he added. | 
