AN OLDHAM mum sentenced on terrorism charges after urging Muslims to fight a holy war against the West has escaped a jail sentence.Shella Roma, of Chester Street, Werneth, was handed a three-year community order with a two year supervision requirement at Manchester Crown Court yesterday after admitting disseminating a terrorist publication.
The maximum sentence was seven years in prison. The court heard she suffers from a dissociative personality disorder that was blamed for her actions.
Roma is the first person in the UK to be convicted of the offence in what was the first terrorism case in Oldham.
The 29-year-old wrote a terror leaflet urging Muslims to go abroad to fight a Jihad (holy war) against America and Britain.
She paid £50 to have 200 copies printed at an Ashton photocopiers and gave them to her husband Amjad Mahmood (30) to hand out to people leaving a mosque in Cambridge Street, Oldham. Jonathon Sharp, prosecuting, said the document suggested conspiracy theories over 9/11.
It stated that if calling for Muslims to engage in violence against America and its supporters made her a terrorist, fanatic and extremist then she “bears witness” that she is these things. Mr Sharp said: “She affirms that the loyalty of British Muslims should be only to their religion and that she has no allegiance towards the country in which she was born and grew up.”
Thomas Bayliss QC, defending, said that Roma was intelligent and creative and it was unfortunate her illness at the time led it to be channelled in this direction.
Judge Clement Goldstone QC said: “He accepted she was not working with any wider terrorist organisations. He said because of her mental health she would not go to prison but warned if she so much as “whispered preachings” in the future intended to destabilise the minds of law abiding people, then nothing would save her from a prison sentence.
A charge against Mr Mahmood has been ordered to lie on file.
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