- Two photographs identified as being Hasna Ait Boulahcen, cousin of Paris terror mastermind Abdelhamid Abaaoud, are actually of innocent woman
- Nabila Bakkacha, of Beni Mellal, Morocco, reveals that she is actually the woman in the photographs
- She says: 'My world has been turned upside down. I am against terrible violence.'
It was a picture which shocked the world: the woman named as a suicide bomber in Paris relaxing naked in the bath.
But
MailOnline can reveal that the picture, and another of her with two
friends, are not of the dead woman - and is in fact of an innocent
Moroccan woman who was the victim of a cruel identity theft.
Today Nabila Bakkacha says: 'I want the world to know I am not a terrorist.'
Mrs
Bakkacha, 32, a mother of three, has been abused as a 'terrorist' in
her home town, despite being herself appalled at the evil of ISIS, and
forced to make a statement to police.
'The photo of me is nothing to do with Hasna Ait Boulahcen,' she said. 'This is a picture of another person.
'It is a picture of me, Nabila, a normal person, someone who lives with her children, who has a little job.'
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Innocent:
Nabila Bakkacha (left) is speaking out to let the world know that she
was the victim of a cruel smear when her identity was stolen and she was
portrayed as 'suicide bomber' Hasna Ait Boulahcen.
Mrs Bakkacha believes that she was betrayed by a woman who had been her friend, but with whom she has since fallen out.
MailOnline
obtained and published the photographs, showing the woman in the bath
and with two female friends on Thursday last week. They were reproduced
shortly afterwards in Moroccan newspapers.
At
the time Hasna Ait Boulahcen was believed to have committed suicide
with an explosive belt as police moved in on her cousin, massacre
mastermind Abdelhamid Abaaoud.
The
pictures had been provided on an estate in France, near the German
border, where Miss Boulahcen had stayed on and off with her father in
recent years.
Before publication the pictures were verified by five men as being of the dead woman.
One of them went so far as to claim to be her cousin and wept when he was shown the picture of the woman in the bath.
Mrs Bakaccha, who has three children aged from 12 to seven, became aware of the pictures early on Friday.
'My friends saw the articles. This was on Friday morning at about 4am,' she said.
'They
called me on the phone that there were photographs of me in Moroccan
newspapers, photos along with an article about Hasna the terrorist.
'I
opened the web pages of the newspapers on my phone and I saw the
articles. I was shocked. I was totally dumb-struck. Since then the
problems have started in Morocco.'
Mrs
Bakkacha has been ridiculed by neighbours and passers-by and has been
forced to make a statement about the article to the police.
She said: 'I had to spend four hours at the police station giving a statement. I’ve not had a good day.'
She
added: 'I have not slept since Friday morning. I’ve hardly eaten. I
just want to set the record straight. Since Friday my life has changed –
anger, fear, trauma, everything.
'I have lost my job – the boss called me and told me not to bother coming in.'
Mrs
Bakkacha believes that the image of her in the bath originates with a
former friend who took the photograph on her mobile phone. However that
friend denied to MailOnline that she was the source of the picture.
Mrs Bakkacha said that she was mystified by the actions of whoever ultimately released the pictures to the wider world.
'When
I realised what [the person] had done I felt bad, it was terrible,
unacceptable. Jealousy, vengeance, I don’t know what [their] motive
could be, but really [they] must be mad to have done that.
'I have never even had a copy of that picture.
'I
don’t know how [they] could have done this. '[They have] put my life in
danger because the world thinks that I am a terrorist.'
Moroccan investigative journalist Said Salmi, of the Lakome online newspaper, contacted MailOnline after reporting on Mrs Bakkacha's claims.
MailOnline
then withdrew publication of the photographs and immediately launched
an investigation, sending reporters to Creutzwald and Morocco.
MailOnline is now satisfied that Mrs Bakkacha is the woman in the
photographs.
Mrs
Bakkacha and her former friend - whose identity MailOnline is aware of
but is not disclosing - grew up together after Mrs Bakkacha moved to
France as a teenager.
'When I first went to France, I didn’t speak French very well and she helped me,' she said.
'Her
family are Moroccan but she is French. We could speak together in
Arabic. But later we fell out and have had lots of disputes.'
This
weekend however the woman denied that when she was approached by
MailOnline. She denied having any knowledge of how the picture emerged,
although she said she had seen it in the past, and had been a friend of
Mrs Bakkacha.
She
said that she believed the image of Mrs Bakaccha in the bath to be in
fairly wide circulation. The friend said she knew the dead woman.
Mrs Bakkacha however knows neither the dead woman, nor her terrorist mastermind cousin. 'I do not know Hasna,' she said,
'I've only been to Paris once, and that was on a school trip in 1999.'
On
Friday French prosecutors announced that Mrs Boulahcen had not been a
suicide bomber, suggesting she was in fact a victim of her murderous
cousin.
Mrs Bakaccha said that she also wanted her name to be entirely cleared of any association with the Paris massacre.
'I don’t know any of these terrorists. I’m against terrible violence,' she said.
‘The families of the victims when they see my picture what do they think? This is the person who has killed their loved-ones?
'I am innocent. I am not a terrorist.'
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3329412/I-not-terrorist-Innocent-woman-reveals-victim-cruel-identity-thieves-smeared-suicide-bomber-Paris-attacks.html#ixzz3skwzKFmT
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