British terrorist, now 31, released from prison after just nine years

A British terrorist who travelled to Syria intending on ‘martyrdom on the battlefield’ has been released from a UK jail after just nine years behind bars.

Yusuf Zubair Sarwar and his childhood friend Mohammed Nahin Ahmed were both jailed in 2014 and branded ‘dangerous’ by the trial judge after pleading guilty of joining a jihadi group in Syria.

Woolwich Crown Court was told that the pair had travelled to the war-torn country in May 2013 to join an Al-Qaeda linked terrorist group after contacting Islamic extremists who were fighting against Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.

Traces of military-grade explosives, including TNT and nitroglycerine, were found on their clothes when they returned to the UK in January 2014. They had joined a militant group called Kataib al-Muhajireen (KaM).

The men, both 22, pleaded guilty to one count of engaging in preparation of terrorism acts contrary to Section 5 of the Terrorism Act. They were both sentenced to 12 years and eight months with an extended licence period of five years.

Sarwar spent eight months in Syria fighting alongside an al Qaida-linked terrorist group 

At the time of their sentencing judge Michael Topolski said: ‘They willingly, enthusiastically and with a great deal of purpose, persistence and determination embarked on a course intended to commit acts of terrorism.’

The judge added: ‘The consequences for them are dramatic and distressing for the families concerned.

‘It is with no enthusiasm that the court sentences young men to significant terms of imprisonment.

‘A grave crime has been committed. The sentence in each is an extended sentence of 17 years and eight months.

The judge said he had imposed a longer licence term after reaching the ‘clear conclusion’ that Sarwar and Ahmed ‘were dangerous.’ He said they were both ‘fundamentalists who are interested in and deeply committed to violent extremism.’

MailOnline can reveal that Sarwar, now aged 31, was released from jail on licence after a Parole Board hearing in April 2022. He was required to serve two-thirds of his custodial sentence before being considered for release.

A spokesperson for the Parole Board said: ‘We can confirm that a panel of the Parole Board has directed the release of Yusuf Sarwar following an oral hearing.

‘Parole Board decisions are solely focused on what risk a prisoner could represent to the public if released and whether that risk is manageable in the community.’

Sarwar left a scribbled letter for his mother when he fled for Syria, but she went to the police who intercepted him and his friend Ahmed when they flew back to Britain eight months later

MailOnline has been told that Ahmed, who like Sarwar is from Birmingham, had an application to be released on licence rejected by the Parole Board in July 2021, but has a new hearing in ‘the next few months.’

If successful, Ahmed, also 31, will be released on licence before Christmas. Like Sarwar, he will be under an extended licence period of five years with limitations on their movements and contacts.

A spokesperson for the Parole Board said:’We can confirm the parole review of Mohammed Ahmed has been referred to the Parole Board by the Secretary of State for Justice and is following standard procedure.

‘Parole Board decisions are solely focused on what risk a prisoner could represent to the public if released and whether that risk is manageable in the community.’

At the time, judge Topolski rejected arguments from lawyers for Sarwar and Ahmed that the sentence should be reduced because the pair joined a group fighting the Syrian president.

‘This was not a spontaneous response to travel to a humanitarian crisis,’ he said. ‘This was a well planned operation put into action for very different reasons.’

The judge said that whilst he concluded that Sarwar and Ahmed had not planned an attack in the UK, there was evidence to show that ‘without doubt’ that the men were travelling to Syria ‘intending on jihad’ and ‘martyrdom on the battlefield.’

DCS Sue Southern, head of the West Midlands police counter-terrorism unit, said at the time: ‘This case typifies the challenges both police and families are facing when it comes to young people being influenced to join the conflict in Syria or Iraq.

‘These two men had no previous connections to extremist organisations and no police record. They were not known to us.

‘However, one of them was clearly being influenced by extremists he was talking to online, and he in turn was radicalising his friend.

‘They both deceived their families and, by the time we were contacted, serious offences had already been committed. We had no choice but to arrest and charge the pair on their return.’

MailOnline has highlighted a number of dangerous terrorists – mostly British born – who have been released from UK prisons without publicity over the last few years and may still pose a security risk.

These include Khuram Iqbal, now 30, who once called himself the ‘father of terrorism’, who was rejected for release by the Parole Board in October 2022, but was allowed to leave prison in December that year.

Iqbal was jailed in 2014, then aged 21, for three years and three months for disseminating terrorist publications and possessing terrorist information.

He was released on licence in May 2015 but recalled to jail in 2016 for breaching a ten-year notification order by failing to tell police about two cryptocurrency accounts.

Referring to the number of terrorists being released, Chris Phillips, the UK’s former Head of the National Counter Terrorism, said: ‘The people being released are convicted terrorists.

‘We know that prison is not reforming prisoners so we are faced with more people who are very dangerous on our streets.

‘You can not adequately monitor these people. We have seen attacks on our streets and more people murdered by recently released terrorists. It is likely we will see more in the future.’