London (dpa) - A Belgian national has been found guilty in a British court of funding terrorism after handing over thousands of pounds which may have been used to help fund the Brussels bombings. Zakaria Boufassil, 26, was arrested with Mohammed Ali Ahmed, 27, after the pair arranged a meeting with Brussels bombing suspect Mohammed Abrini in July 2015 and handed over 3,000 pounds (3,800 dollars) in cash in a park in the British city of Birmingham. Before travelling to Britain for the meeting, Brussels suspect Abrini was smuggled into Syria via Istanbul and met Abdelhamid Abaaoud, who is believed to have masterminded the Paris terror attacks last year.It was Abaaoud who instructed Abrini to travel to Birmingham to collect the cash, which he then exchanged for another currency and returned to Belgium with. Abrini, 31, was charged with murder following the Brussels Airport attack in March this year, and Belgian police found images of the park where the cash handover took place on his phone. Boufassil was found guilty on Tuesday at Kingston Crown Court, in London, and Ahmed pleaded guilty to terrorism funding charges before the trial began. Marcus Beale from West Midlands Police, who carried out the investigation, said the conviction was just one part of the counter-terrorism work taking place in Britain as the threat to the country remains high. Both men will be sentenced on December 12.
