London jihadi jailed for possession of terror training videos after returning from Syria

Jailed: Mustafa Abdullah
PA
Laura Proto15 December 2015
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A gun-obsessed jihadi from south London has been jailed for four-and-a-half years after being found in possession of a stash of terror training videos.

Mustafa Abdullah, 34, was stopped at Gatwick Airport after he returned from a trip to Syria last year and police later discovered gun instruction videos and audio files on guerrilla warfare, and combat equipment on his phone and computer.

The Muslim convert denied 14 charges of possessing terrorism documents or records and one of possessing a gun for terrorism purposes.

During his trial, he told the jury MI5 paid him £10,000 to help them and insisted he only went to Syria to do humanitarian work.

But Abdullah, of Stockwell, was found guilty of 13 offences of possession of documents likely to be useful to a person preparing an act of terrorism, after 12 hours of jury deliberations.

Sentencing, Judge Gerald Gordon said he had no doubt Abdullah would have returned to Syria if he had not been arrested.

The judge said the material found in Abdullah’s possession “formed part of a collection, a veritable reference library, of material expressing twin interests - interest in guns, gun training, violence, fighting and death, and on the other hand extremist radical Islam”.

The jury was also shown a photograph, which was found on Abdullah’s mobile phone, from April last year of him with an automatic rifle on his shoulder.

Abdullah, who worked as an appliance engineer, had been radicalised while serving a six-year sentence in youth custody and had been convicted on a similar terror offence before, the court heard.

Judge Gordon added: "You have still learnt precisely nothing - except what not to do to be detected in the future."

Prosecutor William Emlyn Jones said Abdullah left one of his Islamic wives in about November 2013 with the intent of martyrdom in the north-west region of Syria where the conflict was intense.

In May last year, he flew to Turkey and then to Sweden before arriving in Britain where a large number of videos, audio files and documents were found on an SD card in his possession.

The court heard they demonstrated his interest in weapons, specifically firearms and how to use them, and radical, violent and fundamentalist Islamic ideology.

Gun obsessed: Mustafa Abdullah was sentenced to four and a half years in prison
Metropolitan Police Service

Abdullah told police at the airport that he was born in the UK of Christian Jamaican parentage but converted to Islam around 2000 and took several wives under Islamic law.

He admitted being in Turkey and Syria but said he went to do aid work in Aleppo and Latakia.

After the phone was examined, Abdullah was arrested in October last year. He claimed he had not known any of the training videos were on it.

Police also found more material on phones, tablets and a laptop computer at Abdullah's home, jurors were told.

The defendant told jurors of his long-standing fascination with guns, which he compared with his wife's love of handbags.

He said: "My wife said to me, 'it's like I like handbags'. If I was in America I could fire guns all day, no problem. I love guns. I cannot explain it. They look nice."

The Old Bailey was told he also had an "appalling" criminal past with convictions for wounding and robbery.

Abdullah showed no reaction as he was taken down to the cells to begin his sentence.

Additional reporting by Press Association

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