I risked my life spying on Abu Hamza, now I could lose my council home

Réda Hassaïne issued with an eviction notice for his council home in tenancy row
Warning: Réda Hassaïne is under scrutiny for leaving his Islington flat for long periods
Glenn Copus

A former MI5 undercover agent who risked his life spying on radical Islamist preacher Abu Hamza has told of his shock after being issued with an eviction notice for his council home.

Islington council officials claim Réda Hassaïne broke the terms of his tenancy by disappearing for long periods.

But Mr Hassaïne denies abusing his tenancy, insisting he has had to keep a “completely low profile” because of a fatwa threatening his life.

He said he does not answer his door to visitors unannounced and sometimes has to go away for several weeks.

The 53-year-old was paid “a pittance” to inform for MI5 and Scotland Yard’s Special Branch, exposing Hamza’s extremist activities inside Finsbury Park mosque in the Nineties and early 2000s. Mr Hassaïne would always sit on the preacher’s left-hand side, the side of his blind eye, in the hope Hamza would not spot his body language.

He quit spying after being brutally beaten by followers of Abu Qatada, the other radical Islamist cleric linked at the time to Finsbury Park mosque.

The mosque has since sought to integrate into the local community.

Mr Hassaïne, an Algerian-born Muslim and British citizen, also informed the French security services about Algerian extremists at the mosque.

In January this year he went to New York, and was in court when Hamza was jailed for life on terror charges.

Mr Hassaïne said he valued the security and anonymity his London flat provides, and so was shocked to receive a warning notice to leave.

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The possession order and notice states tenants must inform the council if they are going “to be away for more than a month”. It states the council intends to apply for a court order to grant them possession of the property.

Mr Hassaïne, an author who has lived in Islington since 1997, said: “I did my duty to British society, I don’t want any money, I just want security.”

He added: “I have to take care of my own safety. Abu Qatada is now free in Jordan so for me it’s not the case that everything is now finished.

“There is still a big network and someone one day might think I am a ticket to paradise for them. I was told by people who were released from Belmarsh about Abu Qatada’s fatwa, who said, ‘Be careful, they want to kill you’.” Mr Hassaïne asked the council to move him to a new home after his cover was blown, but said he became caught up in the bureaucracy of having to accrue enough housing points.

Partners for Improvement in Islington, which manages the borough’s housing, declined to comment, citing data protection laws.

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