Calls for public inquiry into whether Isil ringleader received taxpayers' money

The Government’s former terror watchdog is demanding an inquiry into whether an Islamic State ringleader unmasked by The Telegraph was bankrolled by a Guantanamo Bay detainee, given £1m in taxpayer-funded compensation.

Raymond Matimba was exposed yesterday as a senior figure in Isil after secret footage of him with ‘Jihadi John’, was obtained by The Telegraph.

The footage is now being studied by intelligence agencies in the hunt for Matimba, 28, now reckoned to be the most wanted British jihadist still alive. The footage showed Matimba with Mohammed Emwazi, the Isil executioner nicknamed ‘Jihadi John’ and two other British jihadists from Birmingham and Cardiff.

Matimba was part of a terror network, that sprang up in Manchester, that included Jamal al-Harith, a former detainee at Guantanamo Bay who received £1 million in compensation from the Government in a controversial out-of-court settlement.

Al-Harith died fighting for Isil, blowing himself up in a suicide attack in Mosul earlier this year.

Last night, security experts demanded an inquiry into growing concern that cash paid to the Guantanamo detainee was used to fund Matimba and other members of the cell.

Lord Carlile, the former independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, said: “The revelations in The Telegraph raise questions about what has happened to the millions of pounds that was paid by the British Government in the Guantanamo cases and the only way that can sensibly be dealt with is by an independent review conducted by a High Court judge.

“It would enable us to ascertain what happened to the funds. It looks like significant part of that money has funded terrorism and terrorist organisations and that would be a matter of grave concern.”

Hannah Stuart, author of Islamist Terrorism, said: “Given the connections that are emerging it is worth the UK Government asking whether any of the money handed out as part of the Guantánamo Bay settlement has been used to fund the men’s terrorist activities.”

Al-Harith was a known and long-time associate of Stephen Gray, a former RAF serviceman, jailed for five years for terror offences. Gray and Matimba had travelled together to Syria via Spain and Turkey with Matimba paying their airfares. Matimba succeeded in crossing into Syria and joining Isil but Gray was arrested by authorities and sent back to the UK for trial.

Gray and al-Harith have known each other since at least 2009 when the pair travelled to Gaza with an aid convoy organised by George Galloway. Another member of the convoy was Alexanda Kotey, 32, a close friend of Emwazi who was part of the Isil cell dubbed the Beatles that beheaded western hostages in gruesome videos posted online.

Al-Harith, born Ronald Fiddler to devout Christian parents, grew up in Moss Side in Manchester close to Matimba’s home. Al-Harith, a Muslim convert like Matimba, was held in Guantanamo Bay for two years after being detained in Afghanistan. He was released in 2004 and six years later received along with 16 other detainees a share of a £20 million compensation fund negotiation with the UK Government out of court.

Al-Harith entered Syria via Turkey in April 2014, three months before Matimba also joined Isil. Al-Harith was 50 when he died, carrying out a suicide car bomb attack on an Iraqi army base.

The funding of the Manchester terror cell will now focus on whether al-Harith was bankrolling it. A court case heard how Matimba and Gray flew to Barcelona in July 2014 with the tickets, costing just under £200 paid for by Matimba.

The terrorist, who was married, had worked in Manchester in an Islamic bookshop but it not clear what access to cash he had to bankroll a lengthy trip across Europe to reach Syria.

The footage of Matimba with Emwazi and other British jihadists in a coffee shop in Raqqa was secretly filmed on a hidden camera phone in November 2014. A Syrian man had infiltrated the group and gained their trust, risking his life to capture footage of Emwazi, shortly after he had beheaded Western hostages including two British aid workers David Haines and Alan Henning.

The film was smuggled out of Raqqa after its fall. The source said that Matimba was a senior figure among the British jihadists and trained Isil snipers. It is possible that Matimba in turn received his training from Gray, a former RAF gunner trained  in “a range of weapons from grenades and rifles to machine guns and anti-tank missiles”.

Another Guantanamo bay detainee Omar Deghayes, who lives in Brighton, passed some of the money he received from his compensation to teenage jihadists who later died fighting in Syria. Deghayes is said to have paid young Muslim boys to attend a gym where it is feared children were “vulnerable to radicalisation”. Two of the boys - who were both Mr Deghayes’ nephews - were later killed in fighting.