London: A British-Pakistani man who made plans to join the Islamic State (ISIS) terror group is facing a lengthy jail term after he was convicted of preparing an act of terrorism by a court here on Thursday.
Mohammad Aqib Imran, a 22-year-old from Birmingham, was arrested after an investigation into his friend, 20-year-old British- Bangladeshi Naa'imur Rahman, who was earlier this year convicted of a plot to kill Prime Minister Theresa May.
While Imran was not charged in relation to that assassination plot, police identified that they had been interacting online and met on two occasions. Rahman recorded a "sponsor" video and sent it to Imran to show terrorists when he arrived in Libya.
"The idea was that Rahman would kill the Prime Minister and Imran would subsequently have a video from a martyr recommending he be accepted into the terrorist organisation. Such a video would have held weight with Daesh (ISIS)," said Acting Commander for the Metropolitan Police Counter Terrorism Command, Alexis Boon.
"Of course, this was never going to happen because MI5 and the Counter Terrorism Command had been investigating the pair for some time and in fact a covert police officer had been meeting with Rahman to establish how serious his plans were," he said.
The Met Police detectives subsequently arrested both men in November last year. They seized Imran's phone and Kindle electronic reader, and forensic specialists sifted through the media files on the devices. They recovered Rahman's video message from a phone belonging to Imran, and from Imran's Kindle they recovered a terrorist guide book.
On July 18 this year, in a trial with Rahman, Imran was found guilty of collection of information useful to terrorism in relation to the eBook. The jury was unable to reach a verdict in relation to a charge of engaging in conduct in preparation of terrorist acts, which related to Imran's plan to travel to join ISIS, but he was found guilty this week of the offence following a retrial.
"I am pleased with this result. Our police investigation has stopped Imran from joining Daesh (ISIS) on the ground in Libya, where his subsequent actions could have assisted the terrorist organisation to further their aims," Boon added.
Rahman previously pleaded guilty to engaging in conduct in assisting the preparation of terrorist acts, for the sponsorship video he filmed for Imran. He was jailed for 30 years for this and the plot to kill Theresa May. Imran will be sentenced for his offences on January 25 next year.
The jury was told that Imran had learning difficulties and his college had provided him with a dedicated assistance teacher to help him complete a course which would lead to work in social care.
But after meeting Rahman online, Imran went on to reveal his plans to travel to Libya to fight but was unwittingly revealing his plot to undercover investigative officers from the FBI in the US and MI5 in the UK.
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