A Primark safety guard who posted Islamic State (IS) propaganda movies and shared photographs of himself masked and wielding a big knife has been jailed.
Luqmaan Ahmed, 24, was given a three-and-a-half 12 months jail sentence for what a decide mentioned had been ‘horrific’ movies.
Manchester Crown Court docket heard the primary clip – posted to Ahmed’s Instagram in September 2022 – featured fighters in fight fatigues carrying weapons with captured prisoners and a black IS flag waving within the background.
Ahmed additionally revealed two Instagram ‘tales’ – videoclips which solely stay on-line for twenty-four hours – exhibiting executions and suggesting help for the extremist terror group.
The primary, in November 2022, confirmed IS fighters, scenes of execution and violence in addition to an IS flag. It was mentioned to have generated 179 ‘follows’, the court docket was informed.
After his Instagram account was closed down by the social media firm two months later, Ahmed opened a brand new account and posted one other ‘story’ on July 15, 2023 which featured a collection of nonetheless photographs and textual content.
One image confirmed him in woodland sporting a balaclava holding a big knife with what gave the impression to be an IS flag within the background.
Prosecutor Alex Du Sautoy mentioned the second ‘story’ additionally featured a girl and a toddler and one other man with a gun who was mentioned to be encouraging watchers to combat non-Muslims, the court docket heard.
Luqmaan Ahmed, 24, has been jailed after posting ‘horrific’ Islamic State movies
The second story additionally featured execution scenes and generated 165 ‘follows’.
Mr Du Sautoy mentioned Ahmed was ‘doubtlessly concentrating on’ an IS viewers and ‘encouraging violent actions that might endanger life’.
Choose Alan Conrad KC mentioned the three ‘horrific’ clips had been ‘directed to an viewers on-line whom you believed to be sympathetic to Islamic State’.
Ahmed, of Rusholme, Manchester, was sentenced on Monday after being convicted of three expenses of encouraging terrorism at a trial in July.
At his trial, he argued his intention was to draw an viewers of IS sympathisers, then to speak to them and switch them away from terrorism – however Choose Conrad mentioned the reality of his declare was ‘troublesome to see’.
The court docket heard the fanatic posted the September 2022 video clip whereas awaiting sentencing for a cost of encouraging terrorism – after posting related materials encouraging folks to combat in Syria for Al Qaeda-linked group 4 years earlier, when he was a teen.
Andrew Morris, defending, mentioned his shopper believed his religion gave him an ‘obligation’ to show folks away from ‘radical Islamism’. He insisted his shopper had no ‘terrorist mindset’ and didn’t need others to hitch proscribed terror teams.
Mr Morris mentioned the defendant had proven a ‘excessive degree of naivety’ in committing his third offence whereas he was already serving a group order for encouraging terrorism. There was ‘no proof’ that anybody had watched his two Instagram tales, he mentioned.
Ahmed, pictured on bail previous to sentencing, had earlier conviction for encouraging terrorism
He added Ahmed was a carer for his mom who suffers from arthritis whereas he additionally had ‘parental accountability’ for his youthful sister.
Choose Conrad mentioned the defendant ‘knew what he was doing was unsuitable’.
Ahmed should serve two-thirds of his jail sentence behind bars and has an additional 12 months’s prolonged licence.
After Ahmed was jailed, Det Chief Superintendent Jonathan Chadwick, Head of Counter Terrorism Policing Northwest, mentioned: ‘Folks posting this kind of materials can carry concern and mistrust amongst our communities.’
In December 2022, Ahmed was handed a 24-month group order and 150 hours of unpaid work for posting terrorist materials in 2018 when he was 16.
He and one other youth posted propaganda movies made by ‘armed militia’ opposing the Assad regime in Syria on Instagram having turn into obsessive about the warfare following the Manchester Enviornment assault in 2017.
He had allegedly been encouraging others to hitch and combat for the al-Qaeda-linked Hay’at Tahrir Al-Sham militant group, in addition to disseminating quite a few pro-jihadist coaching movies through his Instagram and WhatsApp accounts.
Primark safety guard Ahmed attended Burnage Academy, the identical college as Manchester Enviornment bomber Salman Abedi, though he was a lot youthful so the pair’s paths by no means crossed.
Burnage Academy was additionally attended by Hashem Abedi, Salman’s youthful brother, who helped construct the bomb and was jailed for 55 years, plus Abdalraouf Abdallah, an ISIS recruiter who was near Salman.
The college, in interior metropolis Manchester, is rated “excellent”, and Ian Fenn, the previous head instructor, spent years engaged on authorities de-radicalisation tasks.
Ahmed’s earlier offending associated to when he and fellow pupil Kashif Riaz had been each 16 and in the identical 12 months.
A court docket heard they arrange a collection of Instagram pages to attempt to recruit fellow pupils to hitch the preventing in Syria, lower than a 12 months after Abedi blew himself up murdering 22 folks in Might 2017.
The case was initially handled as a welfare problem by the varsity however the pair had been referred to police who found the boys had been exchanging racist and anti-Semitic messages and inspiring others to hitch the preventing and search martyrdom.
Riaz was additionally given a 24-month group order when he and Ahmed had been sentenced in 2022.
