A single mother-of-four is facing jail after preparing to travel to Afghanistan with her children, planning for them to become martyrs for Islamic State.

Farishta Jami, 36, pledged allegiance to Islamic State and had a ‘clear interest in the use of children in warfare’ – including videos of children carrying out executions, jurors were told.

A court heard the single mother and former school dinner lady became an administrator on various channels on the encrypted Telegram app which spread IS propaganda as she sought to ‘indoctrinate and sacrifice her children for the cause.’

Michelle Heeley KC, prosecuting, said Jami made plans to take her family to Afghanistan to fight for Islamic State in Khorasan (ISK) – currently the terrorist group’s most active branch.

Jami was born in Afghanistan and moved to Britain in 2008, to live with her husband who already lived in a city in the North West, the court heard. 

She fell pregnant quickly and moved to Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, in 2023, after the marriage turned violent.

Records show that June, Jami sent IS propaganda in a chat and later received a video of how to assemble and dismantle a Kalashnikov.

‘A woman living in Stratford upon Avon with four children wants to know how to assemble a machine gun’, Ms Heeley remarked.

Farishta Jami, 36, pictured, pledged allegiance to Islamic State and had a ‘clear interest in the use of children in warfare’

She fell pregnant quickly and moved to Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, in 2023, after the marriage turned violent

She fell pregnant quickly and moved to Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, in 2023, after the marriage turned violent

Five months later, police raided Jami’s home and seized a large number of phones and 30 SIM cards hidden in a plastic bag at the side of the bed.

Jami would swap between different SIM cards and different handsets to keep her online activity secret.

However, when the officers examined the phones they found that Jami’s links to the Telegram channels. On some of the accounts she posed as a man, jurors heard.

Jami had shared videos which showed dead bodies, beheadings, how to assemble an assault rifle and manuals on how to make explosives and construct homemade bombs, Leicester Crown Court heard.

Of the near 7,000 videos that she had stored on three devices or shared, a number depicted children being used as suicide bombers.

One film examined by police purported to be of a disabled jihadi fighter in a wheelchair and wearing a suicide vest who was saying his final goodbyes to his children.

Jurors heard she also ran at least one YouTube channel spreading IS propaganda, and researched one-way business class flights from Birmingham to Kabul, via Pakistan.

Officers found £1,200 in cash hidden under a mattress at the new-build home where she settled in a village outside Stratford-upon-Avon.

Officers found £1,200 in cash hidden under a mattress at the new-build home where she settled in a village outside Stratford-upon-Avon

Officers found £1,200 in cash hidden under a mattress at the new-build home where she settled in a village outside Stratford-upon-Avon

Bank statements showed she had more than £4,200 in two accounts. Ms Heeley said the money Jami saved was ‘only going towards one thing, one-way tickets to Afghanistan.’

In his closing speech, Matthew Brook KC, defending, questioned why IS would authorise Jami to ‘support their cause by committing an act of violent martyrdom’ in Afghanistan, when she could ‘commit an attack in Stratford, the birthplace of Shakespeare?’ Mr Brook asked jurors ‘what could be better publicity for IS than that?’

Mr Brook claimed Jami’s messages had merely ‘given the impression that she supported’ extremists’ ‘violent ideals’ in order to gain access to their Telegram channels so she could ‘slip in her mainstream material’. 

This she hoped, would steer them back to the ‘path of peaceful Islam’.

But Ms Heeley said the messages sent ‘do not show a woman challenging terrorist views, rather they show a woman who shares the same views, and encourages others’.

She said Jami was ‘planning on travelling to Afghanistan to support Islamic State, to martyr herself, and more worryingly, her children, on behalf of the cause of IS.

‘She doesn’t want to simply sacrifice herself, she wants to martyr her children.’

Detective Chief Superintendent Alison Hurst, head of Counter-Terrorism Policing West Midlands, said Jami had shown ‘active support’ for Islamic State.

Officers found £1,200 in cash hidden under a mattress at the new-build home where she lived

Officers found £1,200 in cash hidden under a mattress at the new-build home where she lived

‘She’s been sending propaganda, really concerning nasty videos that include beheadings and manuals on how to make explosives and videos depicting children being used as suicide bombers.

‘She has also sent some of that material to her own children, attempting to indoctrinate them. It was really concerning from that perspective, as they were, obviously, very young and vulnerable.

‘She did extensive searches in relation to one-way tickets for herself and her children to Afghanistan, she was clearly intent on traveling, and she wanted to martyr herself, and to sacrifice her children as well.

‘The mother has been arrested and brought to justice for the really horrendous crime that she has tried to commit and the children have been appropriately safeguarded…thankfully, these cases are few and far between.’

Jami, who had no previous convictions, was found guilty of two counts of preparing acts of terrorism between September 1 2022 and January 10 last year.

The jury took 22 hours to deliberate, reaching a unanimous decision on one count and a majority decision on the other.

She will be sentenced tomorrow.

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