Djamel Beghal, 39, is serving ten years in a French prison for plotting a suicide attack on the US Embassy in Paris and was described as so dangerous that even other al-Qaeda members thought him beyond the pale.

While he was living in Leicester in the late 1990s Beghal, an Algerian, met Azzedin Journazi, from Libya, at a city mosque and in January 2000 helped him to abduct his children from his former wife, the court was told.

During a five-day journey through France, Spain and Morocco, Beghal took the opportunity to meet another leading al-Qaeda terrorist to put the finishing touches on the proposed Paris attack, Norwich Crown Court was told.

Beghal is one of eight alleged conspirators in the abduction, two of whom are currently on trial in Norwich.

The court was told that the group took Mr Journazi’s children, then aged between 2 and 11, from the home of his former wife, Anita Elgirnazi, during an authorised visit on June 10, 2000; but the children were immediately driven to Dover, told to wear scarves and to pretend to be the children of two of the gang, Mustapha Abushima and his wife, Wedad Ahmed, who are currently on trial.

When Beghal was interviewed by Norfolk Police in early 2002 he denied any involvement, saying that he thought the group were on a trip to Disneyland Paris, but admitted driving the children across France and into Spain.

In court yesterday Detective Sergeant Ian Fox of Norfolk police confirmed that Beghal was an international terrorist who had been under police surveillance in Britain and was wanted by the French authorities at the time of the abduction.

Martin Taylor, for Abushima, told the court that Beghal was a leading member of an Egyptian extremist group called Takfir wal-Hirja, financed by Osama bin Laden and which recruited young Muslims for holy war.

“The group was once thought beyond the pale even by Osama bin Laden’s organisation,” Mr Taylor told the jury. “It believes that anybody who doesn’t adhere to their views should be counted as infidels and legitimate targets in the holy war. Within that group, Djamel Beghal was described, even among the extremists, as one of the most dangerous.”

The court was told that among his young recruits were the shoe bomber Richard Reid, Zacarias Moussaoui, who in America tomorrow will admit involvement in the September 11 attacks, and Nizar Trabelsi, the Tunisian footballer. The hearing continues.

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