We wish he had burnt to death, say family of bomb ringleader

The family of Paris terror mastermind Abdelhamid Abaaoud declared yesterday he should have been ‘burnt to death’.

In the Moroccan hamlet where his father Omar was born, they have only just heard of the massacre he organised, leaving 129 dead.

But their verdict was immediate:

Abaaoud had no rightful place on this earth. ‘We rejoice the news he is dead. He deserved it,’ said Sayeed Abaaoud, a cousin of the killer and a village elder and patriarch of the clan.

‘I say he should have been burnt to death, because what he did was not allowed under Islam or any law.’

A police source said Moroccan intelligence had tipped off the French government about Abaaoud. He was killed alongside Hasna Ait Boulahcen, his 26-year-old cousin, who blew herself up.

 

He had been thought to have planned the massacre from Syria until intelligence placed him in Paris for Friday’s attacks.

Father-of-eight Sayeed, 65, said: ‘It is terrible, just terrible. I know it happened a week ago, but we only just heard about what Abdelhamid did, on Moroccan radio. We don’t have TV.

Sayeed said: ‘We feel very upset by the whole thing. Real Muslims do not do what Abdelhamid did. A good Muslim doesn’t steal or hurt people, so he is not a Muslim.’

The Islamic State killer’s death at the hands of French anti-terrorist police was confirmed yesterday.

The 27-year-old was shot in the head by a sniper then hit by grenades during the raid in the Parisian suburb of Saint-Denis on Wednesday. He had to be identified by his saliva.