The brother of a jihadist convicted of plotting what could have been Britain’s worst terror attack ‘went to school with’ the gunman who massacred tourists on a Tunisian beach.
Terror mastermind Walid Saadaoui’s younger brother Bilel, 36, is said to have gone to school with Seifeddine Rezgui, who went on to kill 38 people including 30 Brits in the 2015 atrocity at Sousse.
Bilel Saadaoui, who was three years older than Rezgui, is understood to have attended the Ibn Rachiq Secondary School in the town of Kairouan, 50 miles from the Tunisian coast, at the same time.
Rezgui, an electronics student before he became radicalised, was 23 when he opened fire on a packed beach with an automatic weapon, having come in from the sea – by jet ski or boat.
After firing at tourists on the beach, he entered the Hotel Imperial Marhaba, detonated explosives and fired more shots before running out of the hotel and being shot by police.
The link was revealed by Walid Saadaoui’s British first wife, named only as Jane, when interviewed by police.
The younger Saadoui has been convicted of knowing about older brother Walid Saadaoui and Amar Hussein’s chilling plan to attack Jewish targets in Manchester with semi-automatic rifles and handguns, and not informing the authorities.
A police source said: ‘The first wife of Walid made reference to Bilal having been at school with the attacker. When interviewed, she said she’d been told by Walid that Bilel had been in the same class as the Sousse beach attacker.’
Fanatic Seifeddine Rezgui, who murdered 38 people on a beach at Sousse, Tunisia, in 2015
Bilel Saadaoui, 36, found guilty of failing to disclose information about acts of terrorism
Despite the age difference, the pair may have been in the same class if different years were taught simultaneously. It is not known at what age Saadaoui and Rezgui mixed, or whether they were children or teenagers at the time.
Counter terrorism police said they have not been able to confirm any links between the plot by Saadaoui and Hussein, figures in Tunisia or any other overseas jihadists – and are ‘not looking for any other suspects’.
Officers said they ‘cannot confirm or deny’ whether the men were known to the police or security services despite never having been charged with an offence.
The current husband of Jane – who has since remarried – declined to comment when approached by the Daily Mail.
It can be revealed both Saadaoui brothers came to the UK on visas having met English women in Shirley Valentine-style holiday romances.
Jane met the older Saadaoui when he was working as a hotel entertainer in the Tunisian coastal resort of Sousse more than a decade before he plotted his mass killing spree of Jews on the streets of Manchester.
By day he joined guests, mainly Western tourists, in pool sessions of aerobics and water polo, while at night he helped stage dance shows and quiz contests.
Jurors in the trial at Preston Crown Court heard Walid Saadaoui and Jane lived in his home country for a year and got married before they decided to move to the UK in 2012.
Terror mastermind Walid Saadaoui, who plotted attack on Jewish targets in Manchester
Walid Saadaoui, 38, successfully applied for a work visa and the couple moved to Clacton-on Sea, Essex, where he worked in the town’s Haven Holiday Village and was employed in its shops, bakery and arcade.
He said he saved up by working extra hours at the site for six years and in April 2018 bought The Albatross restaurant in Regent Road, Great Yarmouth, with the assistance of a bank loan.
He told jurors: ‘I wanted to progress in life. I wanted to be my own boss.’
His marriage had already finished earlier that year, he said, and he later met his second wife, Michelle, who was already working at the Albatross, and they went on to have two children.
Walid Saadaoui said The Albatross, which had been established for 17 years by the previous owner, was a ‘successful business with a good customer base’ where he regularly hosted wedding ceremonies and birthday parties.
In 2023, he sold the restaurant and home as his family moved to a house in Wigan, Greater Manchester, which he bought in cash.
The older Saadaoui, born in Gaafour, in north-western Tunisia, was aged about four when his family moved to the Sousse area.
Deactivated AK47 automatic weapons which Saadaoui arranged to purchase without knowing it was ‘sting’ operation by counter-terror police
Bilel also worked in a hotel in Sousse and he too went on to marry an English tourist, a widowed hairdresser named Katherine, who he met while she was on holiday with her two young children.
They met in 2010 and started a relationship a year later before they married in November 2014.
Bilel moved to Bolton, Greater Manchester, with his new wife and her two children from a previous marriage where he was unemployed for a year before working for a charity called the Ummah Welfare Trust for two years.
Since 2020 he had worked as a casual worker at Pound Bargains in Market Street, Hindley.
The prosecution said he was Walid’s confidant and shared his support for the Islamic State.
Bilel would exchange messages and phone calls with his brother but they lived five hours apart and would only meet up for the religious festivals of Eid and he was not initially aware that he had split up with Jane and married a woman called Michelle from the restaurant.
While Walid Saadaoui has leave to be in the UK under a spousal visa, Bilel has leave to remain in the UK until next September, the court heard.
