A migrant who was jailed for raping a woman in Hyde Park was part of an Islamic terrorist cell.
Abdelrahmen Adnan Abouelela was found guilty in his absence of being part of a bomb-making cell in Egypt and given a seven-year jail sentence on May 5, 2015.
Abouelela was one of a group of seven people who manufactured explosives to carry out acts such as the bombing of electricity pylons and gas lines, reports the Daily Mail.
The 47-year-old was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood movement, having escaped from Egypt before he was convicted.
The father-of-one arrived in the UK in April 2023 and claimed asylum in the UK.
He was staying in a four-star Hilton Hotel in Ealing, west London when he carried out his attack.
Southwark Crown Court heard how he approached the victim as she was walking home alone from a night-out in central London at about 9pm in November last year, luring her to a secluded spot in the park where he raped her.
He was convicted of rape on May 22 this year and was jailed for eight-and-a-half years on Tuesday.
Abdelrahmen Adnan Abouelela has been jailed
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Court records in Egypt suggest the group rented an apartment in the Ebnia Baitak area of the 10th of Ramadan City, about 75km to the east of Cairo, where they constructed their bombs.
After brief periods of living in Malaysia and Sudan, he first claimed asylum while living in Turkey.
While there, he posted a video where he claimed to be a member of the Egyptian "opposition" who had been detained for 72 days, adding: "I don't know what will happen to me."
He also repeatedly posted messages on Facebook criticising Egypt's president Abdel Fattah Saeed Hussein Khalil el-Sisi and his regime.
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Abdelrahmen Adnan Abouelela is a supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood
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In various posts on social media, he would describe how he had been briefly imprisoned in Egypt in 2015 by the "dogs" of the el-Sisi regime.
He marked the 11th anniversary of the Rabaa massacre in Cairo when El-Sisi, the-then Defence Minister, cleared two camps of supporters of ousted Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi.
It led to the mass killing of over 900 protesters, with almost 4,000 people injured.
Abouelela referenced those who died on August 14, 2013, stating in Arabic: "Oh God, make their blood a curse on their killers."
The immediate aftermath of the Rabaa massacre in Cairo
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Abouelela also has shared his support for the Muslim Brotherhood, a group regarded as a terror organisation in many countries, however it is not banned in the UK.
The group dates back to 1928 before it arrived in Britain around six decades ago. However, it remains a collection of loosely associated groups rather than a single entity.
David Cameron's Conservative Government took the decision not to ban the movement in 2015, despite individuals "closely associated" with the group having supported suicide bombing and other attacks in Israel by Hamas.
A Government review said the group characterised Western societies and liberal Muslims as "decadent and immoral."
The Muslim Brotherhood has been banned in countries across the Middle East
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Countries that have labelled and outlawed the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organisation include Austria, Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.
Abouelela faces automatic deportation under the UK Borders Act 2007 after serving his sentence for rape as he will have served a sentence of over a year in prison.
However, there are concerns he could potentially manage to stay if he launches a successful legal appeal on the grounds that deportation would breach his rights under the European Convention on Human Rights or the UK's obligations under the Refugee Convention.
Abouelela's membership of the Muslim Brotherhood or one of its affiliates was revealed in a 2019 report about his detention at Ataturk airport by the Saudi state-owned international Arabic news channel Al Arabiya.
The married father-of-one approached the victim as she was walking home alone from a night out in central London, Southwark Crown Court was told | GOOGLEAbouelela was subsequently diagnosed with emotionally unstable personality disorder and complex PTSD, defence barrister Kane Sharpe told the court.
Judge Perrins, however, stated he found this mitigating factor to be "minimal", adding: "There is little connection between those circumstances and your decision to rape the victim on that night.
"It’s clear to me you do not believe you have done anything wrong."
The judge further commended the victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, for her "immense bravery and courage" in giving evidence during Abouelela’s trial at Southwark Crown Court earlier this year.