麻豆区

Birmingham man convicted of terrorism offences

A 19-year-old from Birmingham has been found guilty of terror offences following a trial at Birmingham Crown Court.

Shaan Farooq was found guilty of three counts of intentionally distributing terrorism material after previously pleading guilty to possessing terrorism material from May to July 2022.

Detectives carried out a search on his home, where they found a phone, laptop, tablet and iPad containing extremist material and images which supported the banned organisation Islamic State. Farooq had intended to distribute this material to encourage terrorism.

He was arrested in August 2022, at the same time as his friend Amir El-Harith was also arrested on suspicion of terrorism offences.

El-Harith was jailed earlier this year for six and a half years, for terrorism offences. There were reporting restrictions on his trial, which have now been lifted since Farooq's conviction.

He received three years for three charges of dissemination of terrorist publications after he transmitted videos between April and June 2022 to encourage others to commit, prepare or instigate acts of terrorism with the material relating to Islamic State and six and a half years for three counts of encouraging terrorism between April and May 2023, where he published videos on Instagram.

El-Harith pleaded guilty in December to two counts of possessing terrorism information showing how to create explosive substances and was sentenced to three years and 10 months for each count. All sentences are to run concurrently.

He continued committing offences and accessing terrorist material after his arrest in August 2022, while on bail.

Farooq is to be sentenced on 11 December.