A Royal Mail employee has been jailed for downloading a stash of terrorist documents, including one titled, “How to make a bomb in the kitchen of your mum”.
Mohammed Benares, from Alum Rock, was yesterday sentenced to two years after being convicted by a jury at Southwark Crown Court of possessing the material.
The documents included online magazine Inspire, written and distributed on the internet by Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
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The court heard Benares deliberately downloaded the terror guides, which showed how to make a bomb and detonator, destroy a building and handle an AK47.
The 45-year-old also attended a central London demonstration organised by the Muslims Against Crusades group on September 11, 2011. It was called to coincide with the 10th anniversary of the September 11 attacks.
Analysis of his mobile phone found texts from radical preachers Anjem Choudary and Abu Izzadeen, who were both on the march.
A total of 60 copies of Inspire and 39 Ways To Serve And Participate In Jihad were found among Benares’ possessions.
Police arrested Benares at the three-bedroom terraced house he shared with his wife in March last year.
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His laptop, mobile phone and three hard drives were seized and later checked.
Benares had claimed he was not an extremist and he’d downloaded the material out of curiosity.
But judge Nicholas Loraine-Smith, sitting at Southwark Crown Court, said: “Your presence on that march and text messages paint a very different picture.
“They point to you being, in fact, a fellow traveller with those who had more extreme views and one who is security aware.
“I do not accept that you had a merely fleeting interest in radical Islam or that you downloaded that material out of idle curiosity.”
Tanveer Qureshi, for Benares, said: “This was a misjudgment on his part and a misjudgment which he is going to pay for in a fundamental way.”
Detective Chief Superintendent Kenny Bell, of West Midlands Police, said after the case: “This material is dangerous.
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“Our Prevent officers have recently been working with community groups and educational establishments to help them understand the risks they pose.”
Anyone with concerns about possible extremist material on the internet can report their findings anonymously to specialist officers at the national Counter Terrorism Internet Referral Unit.
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