*Thread* Cage describe themselves this way: “We campaign against discriminatory state policies and advocate for due process and the rule of law.” A better description would be “a UK al-Qaeda service bureau”.

The paths of Moussa Zemmouri alone help to tell the story. 1/15

Zemmouri is a Belgian who moved to Afghanistan in 2000. He fled when the US-led coalition attacked the Taliban in 2001 and was subsequently detained at the border with Pakistan. He was transferred to Guantanamo in 2002.

While he was held, US authorities determined that... 2/15

…he was a member of the banned Moroccan Islamic Fighting Group, a “trained al-Qaeda combatant” who had attended the Derunta camp in Afghanistan, and “a threat to the U.S., its interests or its allies”.

After his release to Belgium in 2005, Zemmouri appeared at Cage events. 3/15

He was billed as a religious figure leading prayers, not just an aggrieved former prisoner. Note the context - in 2008 and 2009, he appeared alongside Cage idol Anwar al-Awlaki. In those days, al-Awlaki was clearly emerging as a jihadi preacher aligned with al-Qaeda. 4/15

He went on to appear at further Cage events. No one would do this without alignment with Cage’s views. These meetings were extremist rallies.

Indeed, Zemmouri chose to do even more: in 2016 he was found guilty in Belgium of aiding a robbery and sentenced to 40 months. 5/15

The aim of the robbery was to seize a large amount of cash to back Belgian jihadis in Syria. In fact, the authorities became aware of the plot and intervened at the scene of the crime because Belgian intelligence was monitoring Zemmouri and others as the Syrian war worsened, 6/15

drawing in hundreds of Belgian recruits.

Zemmouri’s accomplice in the Belgian robbery, an Algerian named Soufian Abar Huwari, is notable. Huwari too had been detained in Guantanamo. US authorities there found he was reported as “a facilitator in the European extremist… 7/15

...network” who had trained with al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. The US deemed it “highly probable” that Huwari would return to terrorist support activities if released.

Sure enough, Huwari did just that. He was charged in Belgium for terrorist activities as well as his… 8/15

…role in the robbery plot and sentenced to 12 years when he was found guilty. The court found “without doubt” that “when he was in Belgium and Syria”, Huwari had “a leadership role in a terrorist group, by way of indoctrination, support, and financing the travel of jihadi…9/15

…recruits from Belgium to Syria”.

YouTube videos showed he preached a radical Salafist message in Syria and backed terrorist attacks in Europe, the court was told. His work served Jabhat al-Nusra and Islamic State. 10/15

During the trial, it was revealed that Zemmouri had a GSM device he only used to communicate with Huwari in coded text messages.

Perhaps Cage was not aware of all this? Not in the least. Actually, it appealed for funds to cover the costs of Zemmouri’s defence in the… 11/15

…robbery trial, with donations to be sent online or transferred directly to Zemmouri’s wife in Belgium. 12/15

This is a central hallmark of Cage activism: it seeks to challenge and frustrate Western security operations, even when the targets are given full due process. Al-Qaeda figures appear again and again and again in its work. Even convictions in open court mean nothing. 13/15

For Zemmouri remains a draw for Cage rather than an embarrassment. In 2019, it promoted him as a "powerful" Qur’an reciter at an event in London, hitting out at “oppressors”. An event in Manchester followed. 14/15

Belgium has been deeply wounded by terrorism, just as we have. So many have suffered now, all over the world. This story shows Cage could not care less - its cause is helping terrorists, not human rights. Never be fooled. 15/15