 | « Back to article | Print this article |
Four Muslim school boys in the United Kingdom are facing jail terms after they were found guilty of possessing materials for terrorist purposes.
Mohammed Irfan Raja, 18, a schoolboy who ran away from home and three students of Bradford University -- Aitzaz Zafar, 20, Usman Ahmed Malik, 21 and Akbar Butt, 20 were trying to encourage others to fight abroad and die as martyrs, prosecutors argued.
They were arrested after Raja, from Ilford, east London, ran away from home in February last year and left a note for his parents saying he was going to fight overseas and they will meet again in Heaven, the Old Bailey court heard.
Raja had been communicating and exchanging material with the other students on the Internet and went to stay with them. But he returned home three days later on February 26 after a tearful phone call in which his parents begged him to come back. His parents then took him to the police.
Counter-terrorism police soon rounded up the Bradford ring after the students' computers, including those at the university, were searched. Among the items found include a video encouraging martyrdom, a US military guide giving instructions on how to make explosive devices and a suicide bombing manual.
Prosecutor Andrew Edis said the propaganda on the internet led Raja to try to get to a terrorist training camp in Pakistan.
"When Raja went to join the jihad, he chose Bradford and the co-defendants as the best way to start. He had hidden his purpose from his family who were beside themselves when they found out what he had done," he said.
Raja had become involved with a group of radical first year students who would allegedly meet at a student house in Bradford. Raja had been introduced to Aitzaz Zafar from Rochdale, Lancs, over the internet by a 17-year-old student called Ali, from New Jersey, who was planning to join them.
The court heard how Zafar and Akbar Butt, from Southall, west London discussed travel arrangements over the internet with a contact called 'Imran' in Lahore, Pakistan.
Butt allegedly used a computer in Bradford University library to plan a trip to a training camp on Pakistan's North-West Frontier.
The Bradford students denied plotting to train for jihad.
The defendants, who had spent much of the trial laughing and giggling together, looked shocked as the verdicts were announced.
They face a maximum of 10 years in prison when they are sentenced later this week.
Jurors are still deliberating over charges faced by a fourth Bradford university student, nineteen-year-old Awaaz Iqbal.