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Web terrorist mastermind jailed for 12 years
A TERROR mastermind who led a Dewsbury schoolboy to become Britain's youngest convicted extremist and kept information on Buckingham Palace and leading Royals has been jailed for 12 years.
Aabid Hussain Khan, 23, a leading cyber terrorist who radicalised impressionable Muslims, was found guilty yesterday alongside one of his young recruits, Hammaad Munshi, who was just 15 when he discussed jihad online with Khan.
Twice-married Khan was found guilty of three count of possessing articles for a purpose connected with terrorism. His cousin and right-hand man, post office night sorter Sultan Muhammad, also 23, was sentenced to 10 years.
Munshi, of Greenwood Street, Saville Town, Dewsbury, will be sentenced next month
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Background: Ringleader spun terror web in classrooms
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The 18-year-old is the grandson of a respected Islamic cleric who spoke out to condemn the July 7 London bombings in the wake of the attacks.
It can now be revealed that Khan is linked to some of the world's most notorious terrorists including a man known to the British and US authorities as "Terrorist 007", Younis Tsouli, and a 21-year-old "wannabe suicide bomber" from Glasgow who is now serving time in prison for terror offences.
Former Bradford burger bar worker Khan groomed disillusioned young Muslims by preying on them in internet chatrooms and encouraged them to attend military terror camps in Pakistan.
He translated recruitment material from al-Qaida commanders in Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan on a website he ran and declared his mission in life was to wage war on western values.
Khan also acted as an administrator on an extremist website called Activion Publications, described as a "source of English language terror propaganda", and ran an online discussion forum for "like-minded" people. He also discussed starting up "a cyber-school to teach cyber-warfare" and kept a mass of files about chemicals and bomb-making alongside his chilling information on the Royal Family.
After a two-month trial at Blackfriars Crown Court he was yesterday convicted of three terror-related offences. Munshi and postman Sultan Muhammad, were found guilty of one and four charges respectively.
A fourth defendant, electrician Ahmed Sulieman, 30, was cleared of three counts of possessing articles for purposes connected with terrorism.
Judge Timothy Pontius adjourned sentence on Khan and Muhammad until today while Munshi will be sentenced on September 19 following a pre-sentence report. Judge Pontius warned him a custodial sentence was "inevitable".
Munshi should have been revising for his GCSEs at Westborough High School in Dewsbury when he began downloading notes on manufacturing deadly napalm instead.
He hid notes under his bed expressing his burning desire to go abroad to kill in the name of Islam.
He was traced through his online conversations with Khan including one in which they argued how best to sneak a sword through airport security.
The Munshi family is at the heart of Dewsbury's Muslim population and Hamaad's grandfather Yakub Munshi runs the town's Sharia court.
Khan, of Otley Road, Undercliffe, Bradford, was convicted of three of the four counts he faced and cleared of one.
Muhammad, of Hanover Square, Manningham, Bradford, denied three counts of possessing an article for a purpose connected with terrorism between June 3 and June 7, 2006, and one count of making a record of information likely to be useful in terrorism on November 23, 2005.
He said nothing in police interview and refused to give evidence during the trial but claimed the material found in his home belonged to Khan.
Sulieman, of Woolwich, London, denied three counts of possessing an article for a purpose connected with terrorism on June 20, 2006 and claimed none of the material was his.
Munshi of Greenwood Street, Savile Town, Dewsbury, denied one count of possessing an article for a purpose connected with terrorism on June 7, 2006 and one count of making a record of information likely to be useful in terrorism on November 23, 2005.
He was found guilty of the second charge – which referred to downloading instructions about how to make napalm – and cleared of the first, related to a homemade firearms manual.
Munshi insisted all along that he had only done the research out of curiosity.
After the case Detective Chief Superintendent John Parkinson, head of Leeds Counter Terrorism Unit, thanked local communities for their support and said: "Today's verdict marks the end of an intense and complex inquiry.
"Let there be no doubt, these are dangerous individuals. These men were not simply in possession of material which expressed extremist views. They were also in possession of material that was operationally useful to anyone wishing to carry out an act of violence or terrorism."
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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