Computer Terror Teenager Jailed

Source Article HERE.

From BBC: The youngest person in Britain to have been convicted under the Terrorism Act has been sentenced to two years in a young offenders' institution. Hammaad Munshi, from Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, was 16 when he was arrested in 2006. Police found a guide to making napalm on his computer. Now 18, he was convicted of making a record of information likely to be used for terrorist purposes. The Old Bailey judge said he had been influenced by "fanatical extremists". Judge Timothy Pontius said: "There is no doubt that you knew what you were doing." During his trial at Blackfriars Crown Court, the jury heard that Munshi had spent many hours viewing jihadist websites and had downloaded guides to making napalm, detonators and explosives.


Hammaad Munshi (left). Aabid Khan and Sultan Muhammad.

Munshi was convicted alongside two other men, Aabid Khan and Sultan Muhammad. Khan, 23, from Bradford, West Yorkshire, was said to be a "key player" in radicalisation via the internet. He was accused by prosecutors of "inciting others to take part in [jihad] and arranging for himself and others to attend military training in Pakistan in preparation for going to fight and, inevitably, to kill". Munshi was said to have been recruited by Khan when he was just 15.

Detective Chief Superintendent John Parkinson from the West Yorkshire counter-terrorism unit told the BBC's Asian Network that all three were dangerous individuals who were not just curious about extremist material. "They'd gone out of their way to possess information about how to construct explosive devices, information about how to carry out acts of terrorism. They were pieces of information that had to be specifically sought out, and has therefore definitely stepped over that criminal threshold."

The trial heard that Munshi was desperate to go and fight and went by the online name of "fidadee", meaning a "person ready to sacrifice himself". He also had a discussion with Khan, via an internet messaging service, about how someone might smuggle a sword through airport security. Police said they found al-Qaeda propaganda on his computer and notes on martyrdom hidden under his bed. The teenager was cleared of possessing terrorist material, but the judge said the nature of what downloaded made it a "particularly serious offence". He told the boy...

You have brought very great shame upon yourself, your family and your religion. However, in the light of the evidence, I have no doubt at all that you, amongst other of similar immaturity and vulnerability, fell under the spell of fanatical extremists, and your co-defendant Aabid Khan in particular. They took advantage of your youthful naivety in order to indoctrinate you with pernicious and warped ideas masquerading as altruistic religious zeal. Were it not for Aabid Khan's malign influence, I doubt this offence would ever have been committed.

Khan was sentenced in August to 12 years for possessing or making documents promoting terrorism. His cousin Muhammad, 23, also from Bradford, was sentenced to 10 years for similar offences under the Terrorism Act.