Brothers plotted to travel for terrorist training, court told

Muhammed Saeed Ahmed, 21, and Muhammed Naeem Ahmed, 20, were “radicalised” by their brother-in-law Muhammed Shafaraz Ahmed, who pleaded guilty earlier this year to an offence of preparing for acts of terrorism, an Old Bailey jury were told yesterday.

Jonathan Sandiford, prosecuting, said the brothers had been observed by police and security services in the company of Shafaraz Ahmed on “effectively training trips” in Snowdonia and the Brecon Beacons aimed at preparing themselves for stays in the Yemen and Afghanistan.

“The prosecution say that they were going on these occasions on what were effectively training trips trying to prepare themselves for the arduous conditions that you would expect to encounter if they went to Afghanistan or to Yemen for the purpose of terrorist training,” Mr Sandiford told the court.

He said police had searched the brothers’ family home in Bradford on March 16 last year and were told by their father that they were due to travel to Bangladesh the following day with other relatives.

Items found during a search of their bedrooms included a GPS device, night vision goggles, high quality LED torches and sleeping bags for use in very cold conditions in spite of the climate in Bangladesh being very hot and humid, he said. Other items included high grade military clothing and a copy of an SAS survival handbook.

Mr Sandiford told the court: “The prosecution say that the two defendants were going to use the family trip to Bangladesh as a cover to move on from there to places where they could obtain terrorist training.”

He told the jury that Shafaraz Ahmed had “succeeded in radicalising” the brothers.

“In simple terms... the prosecution say that in the period of time between November 21 2010 and March 17 2012 these two men became radicalised into a version of Islam that led them to come into an agreement – a conspiracy – a criminal agreement to attend a place for terrorist training,” he told the court. “The prosecution say they were planning to go.”

The brothers deny a charge of conspiring together and with others to attend a place used for terrorist training. They have admitted 11 counts between them of collecting or possessing information likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism.