Teenager Jailed In Terror Trial
A man who travelled to Turkey to try and join ISIS fighters in Syria has been jailed at Manchester Crown Court. 19-year-old Ednane Mahmood of Plane Street, Blackburn was found guilty following a 12-day trial of disseminating a terrorist publication and engaging in conduct in preparation of acts of terrorism. He was sentenced at Manchester Crown Court, Crown Square to four years in prison.
In the early hours of 18 September 2014, Mahmood left his home in Blackburn and travelled from Manchester Airport to Sofia Airport in Bulgaria. From there he travelled by bus to Turkey to a town near the Syrian border, where on 20 September 2014 he then tried to make contact with a number of people asking for urgent help, including one man who he believed was fighting in Syria at the time. Mahmood’s requests went unanswered and the next day, following an exchange of messages with his family, they persuaded him to travel back to the UK. Items were seized from Mahmood’s home. The examination of a computer showed that before leaving the UK, he had actively searched for online and watched a large number of ISIS videos, including executions of soldiers and hostages. He shared some of these publications online and on 31 August 2014 posted an image on his Facebook page that contained the words, “I wish I could fight in the cause of Allah and then be killed, and then fight, and then be killed, and then fight, and then be killed.” Mahmood had also researched different ways of travelling to Syria and nearby destinations and how to gain access to these countries.