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Three “cyber-jihadis” who used the Internet to urge Muslims to wage holy war on non-believers were jailed for between six-and-a-half and 10 years Thursday in the first case of its kind in Britain. Tariq Al-Daour, Younes Tsouli and Waseem Mughal had close links with Al-Qaeda in Iraq and thought there was a “global conspiracy” to wipe out Islam, the Woolwich Crown Court in south-east London was told.
Moroccan-born Tsouli, 23, was jailed for 10 years; UAE-born Al-Daour, 21, received a six-and-a-half year sentence; and 24-year-old Mughal, who was born in Britain, was given seven-and-a-half years. Sentencing them, Judge Charles Openshaw said the men had engaged in “cyber jihad”, encouraging others to kill “kuffars” or non-believers. “It would seem that Internet websites have become an effective means of communicating such ideas,” he said, although he added that none of the men had come close to carrying out acts of violence themselves. Referring to Tsouli, whom he recommended for deportation to Morocco after serving his sentence, he said: “He came no closer to a bomb or a firearm than a computer keyboard.” Al-Daour, from west London, on Wednesday admitted “inciting another person to commit an act of terrorism wholly or partly outside the United Kingdom which would, if committed in England and Wales, constitute murder.”
Tsouli, also from west London, and Mughal, from Kent, southeast England, admitted the same charge on Monday. The guilty pleas came part way through a trial which had run for two months. Al-Daour, Tsouli and Mughal also pleaded guilty to a 1.8-million-pound conspiracy to defraud banks, credit card and charge card companies. The trial was told the computer experts spent at least 12 months trying to encourage people to follow the extreme ideology of Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, using email and radical websites. Films of hostages and beheadings were found among their possessions, including footage of British contractor Ken Bigley, who was killed in Iraq in 2004; and US journalist Daniel Pearl, killed in Pakistan in 2002.
Compact discs containing instructions for making explosives and poisons were also found, with other documents giving advice on how to use a rocket-propelled grenade and how to make booby traps and a suicide vest. Police who trawled through a mass of data and websites also discovered online conversations in which Al-Dour talked of sponsoring terrorist attacks, becoming “the new Osama,” and justifying suicide bombings.
After the sentencing, the head of Scotland Yard’s counter-terrorism unit, Peter Clarke, said in a statement: "These three men, by their own admission, were encouraging others to become terrorists and murder innocent people. "This is the first successful prosecution for inciting murder using the Internet, showing yet again that terrorist networks are spanning the globe… “Their terrorist tradecraft was sophisticated, but nevertheless defeated by this investigation.”