© Federal police / AFPMohamed Abrini
Two Birmingham men handed £3,000 (US$3,730) to Mohamed Abrini - who is thought to be the man wearing a hat in CCTV footage taken at Brussels airport before and after the attack there in March - before he flew to Paris and disappeared.
Zakaria Boufassil, 26, from Birmingham, stands accused of making the payment, which was withdrawn from the bank account of Belgian national Anouar Haddouchi, who had been claiming benefits while living in the West Midlands.
Kingston Crown Court heard how welfare payments continued to be paid into Haddouchi's bank account even after he left Britain for Syria and had started fighting for Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL).
Boufassil is accused of handing over the money to Abrini during a secretive meeting in a Birmingham park in July 2015.
He was accompanied by Mohamed Ali Ahmed, who has already admitted to the charge.
On the opening day of the trial, jurors heard how Abrini was sent to collect the money by Abdelhamid Abaaoud, who is suspected of being one of the ringleaders of the November 2015 Paris attacks in which 130 people died.
"There is no doubt that the money was handed over with the intention of assisting acts of terrorism," Prosecutor Max Hill QC told the court.
"The intention could not be more clear. Haddouchi had left the UK to fight for Daesh [Arabic pejorative term for IS] in Syria. Abrini came to collect the money in the UK.
"The destination would include Syria and specifically Daesh, either to Haddouchi himself or to other fighters. In other words the cash was handed over to Abrini with the intention of assisting others to commit acts of terrorism."
Hill said that Haddouchi left Britain in the summer of 2014 to fight in Syria.
"His TSB account at times contained some £7,000 or more. The figure fluctuated over time because benefits payments were still going into the account, even though Haddouchi had left the country," he added.
Jurors heard that the money had been gradually withdrawn in cash sums on various dates between May 30 and November 23, 2015.
Twelve people were killed in the attack on Brussels airport and a further 20 died in the Maelbeek metro station bombing that hit shortly afterwards.
LOLLOLOL!!! Either British welfare payments are fantastic or this is all crap. Do you recall how those attacks used explosives, many weapons and witnesses claim that the shooters were wearing vests and driving expensive cars? All paid for by welfare.
Actually sounds like an argument, even if it's not valid, towards reducing those payments, doesn't it?