"Armchair Extremist" Jailed For Possessing Terrorist Magazines

9 May 2019, 13:25 | Updated: 9 May 2019, 13:37

An "armchair extremist" who downloaded copies of Al-Qaeda magazines and carried out searches of Prince Louis and other members of the Royal Family has been jailed for more than two years.

The Old Bailey heard how counter terrorism cops arrested Mohammed Ghani after he made calls to 999 and the anti-terrorist hotline in which he claimed he would kill people or police officers.

Claiming he had been drugged by doctors and MI5 he told emergency operators he would "f***ing kill a civilian on the street for what they did to me."

Ghani added: "I will kill a police officer."

Prosecutor Brett Weaver told the Old Bailey Ghani's computer was used to conduct a number of searches of relevance, which include a search for Prince Louis on 4 September, issues of "Dabiq" on 27 November, "What happened when Anjem Choudary held a demonstration outside a large London mosque" and "Prince William."

Ghani was in the Channel intervention programme, having expressed extremist views. The program focuses on providing support to people who are identified as being at risk of being drawn into terrorism.

Officers rushed to Ghani's house where he confessed to having electronic copies of terrorist magazines.

Police said the magazines featured "horrendous articles about how to make different types of bombs, where to carry out terrorist attacks and how to assassinate people.”

When officers asked him about the magazines, which included an issue commemorating the 11 September terror attacks, Ghani said he considered them “entertaining and informative”.

Commander Clarke Jarrett, head of the Met's Counter Terrorism Command said: “The material Ghani downloaded is not ‘entertaining and informative’ as he stated, but is toxic, hate-filled and in the wrong hands would provide a person with sufficient knowledge to carry out an attack."

Defending Cassan Lindsay, said Ghani had been referred to as an "armchair extremist" in reports, claiming that he only downloaded the publications to try and build up his level of understanding of the matters.

Ghani plead guilty to eight counts of possession of a document containing terrorist information and was jailed for two years and four months.