London Women To Be Charged With Terror Offences After 'Hiding £16,000 In Knickers For Syrian Rebels'

A British student arrested at Heathrow is to be charged with terror offences after being accused of hiding £16,000 in her knickers for Syrian fighters.

Nawal Msaad, 26, and her alleged co-conspirator Amal Elwahabi, 27, are the first British women charged with terror offences over the conflict.

Nawal Msaad is accused of hiding 20,000 euros in her underwear

Appearing at Westminster Magistrates' Court in central London yesterday the pair were accused of trying to send money to a suspected British jihadi fighting in the Middle Eastern country's civil war.

University undergraduate Masaad, of Centurion Close, Holloway, north London, was arrested at Heathrow Airport on January 16 as she prepared to board a flight to Istanbul with 20,000 euros wrapped in cling film in her underwear.

Unemployed El-Wahabi, of Rucklidge Avenue, Willesden, north west London, a mother of two young sons and a close friend of Masaad, was later arrested at her home.

The women are both charged with becoming concerned in an arrangement as a result of which money was made available or was to be made available to another, and they knew or had reasonable cause to suspect that it would or may be used for the purposes of terrorism.

The police said in a statement that the women "jointly entered into or became concerned in an arrangement as a result of which money was made available or was to be made available to another, and they knew or had reasonable cause to suspect that it would or may be used for the purposes of terrorism".

UK intelligence sources told the Daily Telegraph that from among the 1,000 Westerners fighting with different militant groups in Syria over 300 are British nationals.

The women, who are British of Moroccan descent, were remanded in custody by District Judge Howard Riddle to appear next at the Old Bailey on January 31.