Individuals Convicted for Distributing Terrorism Material

Two individuals have been found guilty of disseminating material related to terrorism, which supported the Islamic State (IS) organization. According to police, Shaan Farooq, a 19-year-old from Saltley, Birmingham, possessed a phone, laptop, tablet, and iPad that contained extremist content and images. He intended to distribute these items to promote terrorism. Farooq received a conviction at Birmingham Crown Court on three charges of intentionally distributing terrorism material. This followed his earlier guilty plea to possessing terrorism material between May and July 2022. His sentencing is scheduled for 11 December at the same court. In August 2022, concurrent with Farooq’s arrest, his friend Amir El-Harith, aged 20, was apprehended at his residence in Smethwick. El-Harith was taken into custody on suspicion of terrorism-related offenses connected to IS. El-Harith was sentenced in July to six and a half years in prison for three counts of encouraging terrorism. These charges stemmed from videos he published on Instagram between April and May 2023. Police stated that information regarding El-Harith’s case can now be disclosed, as reporting restrictions surrounding his trial were removed subsequent to Farooq’s conviction. For three charges of disseminating terrorist publications, El-Harith received a three-year sentence. This was for transmitting videos between April and June 2022, which aimed to encourage others to commit, prepare, or instigate acts of terrorism using material linked to IS. He also received a sentence of six and a half years for three counts of encouraging terrorism, committed between April and May 2023, by publishing videos on Instagram. In December of the previous year, he admitted guilt to two charges of possessing terrorism information detailing the creation of explosive substances, for which he was sentenced to three years and 10 months for each charge. All these sentences are to be served concurrently. Detectives indicated that El-Harith persisted in committing offenses and accessing extremist material subsequent to his arrest and while out on bail. Furthermore, El-Harith was issued a four-year serious crime prevention order (SCPO), which will commence upon his release, along with a four-year extended license period. BBC Birmingham is available for follow on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X, and Instagram. Copyright for this material is held by BBC, 2024. All rights are reserved. The BBC bears no responsibility for the content found on external websites. Details concerning our approach to external linking are accessible.