Wednesday, October 28, 2015

Muslim preacher jailed after cops find invoice for £18 MILLION of ammunition on his mobile phone

Abdurraouf Eshati
Jailed: Abdurraouf Eshati has been sentenced to six years in prison
An imam who was found in the back of a lorry in Dover has been jailed after police discovered an invoice for £18million worth of ammunition on his mobile phone.
Abdurraouf Eshati, 29, was sentenced to six years in prison today after he pleaded guilty to terrorism and immigration offences.
Eshati, who lived in a mosque in Wrexham where he sometimes led prayers, was one of 20 people discovered in a lorry heading for France on November 30 last year.
On his mobile phone, police found a $28.5million (£18.6million) invoice from an arms supplier for the sale and delivery of 1,100 tonnes of ammunition to Libya.
His phone also held a document about chartering a cargo jet for $250,000 (£163,000) for use in the North African country.
Police also discovered a number of false documents which Eshati had given to an immigration tribunal in 2012 and he was subsequently charged for immigration offences.
Met Police/PAAbdurraouf Eshati
Receipt: The invoice found on the phone belonging to Abdurraouf Eshati
Eshati, who had 1,000 euros in cash in his luggage, also had images on his phone of activists from the militia group Ansar Al Sharia and a beheading.
On his arrest, Eshati told police he had been in Britain since 2009 on a visa and later as an asylum seeker.
He said his father had been a senior figure in the Gaddafi regime and was now in prison in Tripoli while his two brothers had been murdered.
However, this was a false claim and it later emerged that his brother was alive and well while his father was recovering from gall bladder surgery in Tunisia.
Investigations in Italy revealed that Eshati had been caught up in a determined attempt to get arms into Libya in plain contravention of the UN embargo.
Eshati's role was to translate the documents for a friend and senior Libyan Army officer - referred to as ET - who brokered the deal in Italy.
Met Police/PAAbdurraouf Eshati
Libya: Eshati was arrested after trying to get into France in the back of a lorry
Yesterday Eshati pleaded guilty to possessing a document for terrorist purposes and seeking leave to remain in the United Kingdom by deception by falsely claiming he was at risk of persecution if he returned to Libya.
A CPS spokesperson said: “The very fact that Eshati pleaded guilty to these offences on the first day of his trial is a testament to the strength of the case and evidence brought against him.
“Images found on his phone included an invoice for a massive amount of ammunition worth $28.5 million and the hiring of a cargo plane to be used in Libya.
“The information that was contained within those documents found on Eshati’s phone were considered likely to have supported and been useful to an individual preparing to commit an act of terrorism.
"Such was the scale of his activity, the court was told his arrest and the finding of these documents has led to Italian authorities discovering large scale illegal arms supplies being imported from eastern Europe to conflict zones in Libya and other places.”

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