Pablo Hoque, 25, was arrested at an airport on his way back from a holiday in Dubai. A month later the UK’s National Crime Agency was tipped off about his location in France, as he was travelling over the Channel. By September he had landed at the French city of Marseille. The British authorities intercepted a mobile phone call from Hoque, which he reportedly made to a jihadist recruiter in Syria.

Hoque’s mobile phone also contained details of how, between May and October 2015, he had travelled to France, and had given two of his close friends – known only as Bibi and Mohammed Ali – the keys to his car in Marseille “to ensure that they would not come back into trouble,” say the documents. The mobile phone also contained a message from Hoque to two other friends in Lebanon.

They told him:

“A big attack is coming, and if you were to make a wrong hand move, this would be the one. Your life is so secure, if you are not going to do this, you have no soul.”

The police arrested and questioned Hoque, then took them to his home in the village of Marzocle, north-west Paris, where they saw him dead at his desk. In the room were two cell phones, one of which was linked to Hoque’s name, and a book with Islamic verses. They believe the contents of the book were written in Arabic.

Hoque’s passport has been held since and he is now being extradited from the UK. French police believe the British authorities will also extradite him. In a letter to his family sent from jail this week in Paris, Hoque is being forced to admit he was the “mastermind” of the plot, with the same accomplices, who used to joke about it online on Islamic forums.

In the interview he revealed his “personal hatred” for Britain, saying:

“We had a plan for the attack. I knew it. I’m ready. We’ve chosen an attack, we’ve chose what to do. It’s our fate, that we’re prepared to die for what we believe.”

When asked by French magazine L’Express whether he had been influenced by the Paris terrorist attacks, Hoque replied: “In a very personal way, of course.”

Hoque had lived in Birmingham for three months, living with his parents and taking a full