Wednesday, March 04, 2015

British chemistry teacher who was stopped from travelling to join ISIS when his wife hid his passport was planning to commit 'multiple acts of murder'

  • Chemistry teacher Jamshed Javeed planned to travel to Syria to join ISIS
  • The 30-year-old was among group who became 'determined to fight Jihad'
  • Helped younger brother Mohammed join terror group by giving him money
  • Father Javeed bought clothing, outdoor equipment and flights to Istanbul
  • His family stopped him from fleeing country by hiding bag and passport
  • He was arrested in December 2013 and is awaiting sentencing having admitted two counts of engaging in conduct in preparation of terrorist acts
Jamshed Javeed, 30 (pictured), from Manchester, appeared at Woolwich Crown Court in London today to be sentenced after admitting two counts of engaging in conduct in preparation of terrorist acts
Jamshed Javeed, 30 (pictured), from Manchester, appeared at Woolwich Crown Court in London today to be sentenced after admitting two counts of engaging in conduct in preparation of terrorist acts
A British chemistry teacher who was stopped from travelling to Syria to join ISIS when his wife hid his passport had been preparing to commit 'multiple acts of murder', a court heard.
Jamshed Javeed, 30, from Levenshulme, Manchester, was among a group of young Muslim men who became radicalised and 'determined to fight Jihad' in 2013.

He helped his younger brother Mohammed and two other men join the terrorist group in Syria by providing money for flights as well as clothing and equipment, Woolwich Crown Court in London heard.

Javeed is then said to have prepared to travel to the country with another member of the group, Nur Hassan, to fight with ISIS against government forces.

In November 2013, he bought clothing, equipment and flight tickets from Manchester to Istanbul but was stopped from travelling by his family, who hid the clothes he had prepared, along with his passport.

The court heard the defendant's wife Shameila began suspecting that he was planning to travel to Syria after it emerged his brother had gone.

She sent him a text message asking where his passport was, saying: 'You have never used your passport in the past so it is strange that you feel the need to use it now.'

She also told him she was pregnant with their second child but the court heard that the news 'did not deter him from going'.

In a text exchange, his wife expressed her disillusionment, saying: 'No point in giving my opinion ... even if I am your wife.'

Another message said: 'Jamshed you refuse to take on board anyone's opinion unless I've got a gun and I'm in Syria.'


Around a week later, Javeed spent several hundreds of pounds on outdoor clothing, as well as a Microsoft computer.

He also attempted to obtain a new passport, which was issued on December 12, 2013, and delivered to his school.

Javeed pressed ahead with his plans despite the pleas of his wife and family not to go, prosecutor Simon Denison QC said.

He told the court: 'It would appear that the defendant's own plans to travel to Syria were suspected by his wife Shameila soon after the discovery that Mohammed had gone.

'On October 24, 2013, his wife texted him asking him where his passport was, he replied that he had it in his bag.


'She then asked him to put it back, and then said: "Jamshed I just want to say that you know at the post office they take a debit card as proof of name.

'"You have never used your passport in the past so it's strange that you feel the need to use it now. Please don't be sneaky with me and just be straight!"'

Javeed tried to provide for his wife and unborn child by taking out a bank loan for £6,200 and then transferring £7,000 into her account.

However, he was arrested before he was able to get on a plane on December 22, 2013.
Police found material on his mobile phones and computers providing evidence of a 'violent Islamist ideology' and his 'intention to engage in acts of terrorism in support of that Islamist ideology'.

Javeed, who taught 11-to-16-year-olds at Sharples High School in Bolton, pleaded guilty last year to two counts of engaging in conduct in preparation of terrorist acts.

He accepts he intended to travel to Syria to join rebels against the 'vicious' Assad regime but claimed he has never supported 'the aims of ISIS as now revealed and understood' and insisted he is not an extremist.

Mr Dennison said it was clear the action Javeed intended to engage in 'would have involved the use of firearms and/or explosives'.

He said: 'This case, of course, is not about who is right, and who is wrong, in the conflict in Syria - as if anyone could say.

'It is not about humanitarian aid. Nor is it about the religion of Islam.

'It is about the defendant assisting others in preparing, and preparing himself, to commit multiple acts of murder in guerilla warfare to advance their religious or ideological cause.'

Javeed's younger brother Mohammed, 21, who studied mechanical engineering at John Moores University in Liverpool, left Britain to travel to Syria on October 6, 2013, the court heard
Mr Denison said it was believed he might have gone to Iraq with ISIS but nothing has been heard of him for more than a year.

Mohammed travelled with Khalil Raoufi, who also attended John Moores and was killed in February last year, a day after his 20th birthday.

Before they left, Javeed transferred a total of £1,400 to his brother, who bought winter clothing and flights.

Mohammed and Raoufi met up with another former student at the university, Raphael Hostey, when they reached Turkey on their way to Syria. It is believed Hostey remains in the war-torn country.

After travelling to Turkey, the men sent a text message to Javeed which said: 'Turks telling us not to join ISIS looool'.

He replied: 'They would say that!!!ha.' and 'Don't get tempted by FSA [the Free Syrian Army].'


When his sister Naseeba tried to raise the alarm about Mohammed having gone missing, Javeed finally admitted he had fled to Syria.

The court heard a recording - made by Javeed's sister - of an emotional argument about him hiding his brother Mohammed's plans and of his own intentions to flee the country.

In the recording, his mother accuses him of being a 'murderer' for helping his sibling to go and his parents say they will give evidence against him for encouraging him to go to fight.
Javeed says: 'Lock me up. Am I bothered if they lock me up?

'You don't want me to go but I want to. And I am going to go, regardless.'

His mother says to him in despair: 'If this religion doesn't allow respect for a mother and father ... this is not the religion of my prophet, peace be upon him. Yours is a different religion. You have got into the kuffars (non-believers).'

She goes on: 'They have become disobedient towards the religion. They are no longer under Islam.

'They have been taken over by somebody who is a real enemy of Islam. And he is having the young children of mothers killed. He is some tyrant. He is finishing the line of young Muslims.'

'I AM GOING TO GO REGARDLESS': JAVEED WARNS PARENTS IN ROW

The court listened to a tape recording of an argument at the family's Manchester home on December 20, 2013.
The row, between Javeed and his parents, was recorded by his sister Naseeba on her mobile phone.
During the fight, Javeed says: 'I've not done anything wrong...I'm not bothered about police. Lock me up. Am I bothered if they lock me up?'
He adds: 'You don't want me to go, but I want to. And I am going to go, regardless.'
Javeed's parents blame him for Mohammed leaving to fight, and he replies '[It's] totally my fault, I encouraged him. Mohammed did the right thing'.
His mother accuses him of being a murderer for having helped his brother Mohammed go to Syria.
His mother can be heard saying in Arabic: 'If this religion doesn't allow respect for a mother and father, if there's no consideration for a mother and father, this is not the religion of my prophet, peace be upon him. Yours is a different religion, you have got into the kuffars (non-believers).'
She adds: 'They have become disobedient towards the religion, they are no longer under Islam. They are no longer under the religion of the prophet. These things do not exist in the religion of the one sent by Allah the Great.
'Not these things they have been taken over by some kafir, they have been taken over by somebody who is, is a real enemy of Islam - and he is having the mothers and the young children killed. He is some tyrant. Tyrant. 
'He is the finishing line of young Muslims. Someone is trying to bury, supress Islam properly. And this isn't going to happen.'
The argument ends with Javeed's father telling him to leave and never come back. 
Mr Denison said the recording is not important because of any argument about 'the true meaning of Islam' but 'because it shows the defendant's parents understood that he was going to Syria to fight, as his younger brother had gone, with his assistance, to fight. And likely to be killed.

'Not once in that argument did he deny it, or say anything about humanitarian aid.'

Javeed was interviewed under caution in December 2013 and denied he was planning to go to Syria.

He was bailed and re-arrested on March 11 last year once police had had the chance to examine the contents of his phones, external hard drives and other electronic devices.

It was found he had made extensive internet searches for material relating to violent jihad including videos and sermons by a number of violent hate preachers including Abu Hamza, Jabat Al Nusra and Abu Qatada.

He had also searched terms like 'Al Qaeda path', 'lover of jihad', 'martyrs in Islam', 'Osama Bin Laden', 'Jihad is compulsory' and 'Royal Marine murder'.

He had also bought a lot of equipment including thermal gloves and a hat, solar mobile phone chargers, combat trousers, a North Face rucksack, a first aid kit and had £1,490 in cash.

Mr Dennison said: 'By his pleas the defendant has accepted that he was intending to commit himself, and assist others to commit, acts of serious violence for the purpose of advancing a political, religious or ideological cause.

'The evidence from the material in his possession indicates that he was intent on fighting with the terrorist group ISIS - It follows that the action he was intent on committing inevitably included acts of murder, using firearms and/or explosives.'

Charles Bott QC, for Javeed, said: 'The defendant's position is that he did something that he considered right at the time in very particular circumstances that he would not contemplate doing now.

'He is one of many people who did not know the truth about ISIS in the later months of 2013.'
The 'thoughtful, studious and mild-mannered' teacher was 'deeply moved' by images of 'extreme suffering' of Syrian people at the hands of the Assad regime, the court heard.

The events that led to his arrest occurred in the weeks after MPs voted against possible military action in Syria.

Mr Bott read a statement by Javeed which said: 'If they had voted for military intervention perhaps I wouldn't be in prison.'

He said he is 'appalled at the indiscriminate brutality' of ISIS, adding that he does not support their aims or 'grotesque and barbaric' beheadings.

Mr Bott also read a statement from Moazzam Begg, the former Guantanamo Bay detainee, who described Javeed as one of the 'most thoughtful and least dogmatic' prisoners he encountered when he was in Belmarsh jail last year.

Begg was released after charges against him were dropped. 

Javeed appeared at the sentencing hearing today in a purple V-necked sweater, with a full beard and his hair in a top knot.

Chemistry teacher who gave up his job so he could go to Syria and join his brother fighting for ISIS is jailed for six years 

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2980918/Chemistry-teacher-gave-job-Syria-join-brother-fighting-ISIS-jailed-six-years.html#ixzz3TWosjFCd 

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