Friend of London Bridge attacker is jailed

A close friend of the main London Bridge terrorist has been jailed for four and a half years today after making an ISIS propaganda video outside Windsor Castle pledging to kill ‘non-believers’.

Taha Hussain, 21, from Slough, Berkshire, was in a group shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ and ‘baby butchers’ at soldiers.

He also pledged to topple a statue of Queen Victoria in the same way Saddam Hussein’s fell in Iraq in 2003 – but later told police he was in Windsor ‘feeding the ducks’.

He and another extremist filmed themselves in a car outside the famous castle and at the nearby Coldstream Guards barracks as they made threats and vowed to ‘liberate Windsor’ saying: ‘ISIS will last for ever’.

Hussain was an associate of Khuram Butt, who went on to lead two other men on a vehicle and knife attack on London Bridge and in Borough Market in June, killing eight people. 

Hussain ran ran two Youtube channels and broadcast extremist material using Whatsapp and Telegram to circle of extremists and appeared on the notorious Jihadi Next Door documentary on Channel 4.

Among the material he shared was an ISIS guide to joining the fighting in Syria which advised followers to launch an attack in their own countries if they were prevented from making the journey.

Judge Paul Dodgson told him: ‘Most chillingly in the light of recent events there is a chapter containing advice to those who could not go to Syria.

‘The advice includes to wait a few months and try again, steal from the kuffars [non-believers] and, most pertinently to the events we have endured this year, kill local kuffar in their own land.’  

Taha Hussain (second right) with London Bridge ringleader Khuram Butt (third left) on the Channel 4 documentary ‘The Jihadi Next Door’ 

Hussain (left) also made a video with Haroon Syed (right), who was previously jailed for life to plotting a terrorist attack on a London landmark or a Elton John concert

Hussain ran two Youtube channels which he used to broadcast extremist material. He also used the encrypted Whatsapp and Telegram messaging services to disseminate documents

Hussain and another friend filmed themselves in a car outside Windsor Castle and at the nearby Coldstream Guards barracks as they made threats and yelled ISIS slogans.

t Hussain and Butt were ‘close pals’ and Hussain ‘could easily have gone on to be part of the same plot’ had he not been arrested.

In court, the apprentice panel beater, who had become religiously observant at the age of 15, claimed he was in Windsor ‘to feed the ducks.’

But, sentencing him to four and a half years in jail, the judge told him: ‘The attitude that you then possessed is clearly demonstrated by the words of hatred that you used.’

He said the video ‘demonstrates quite graphically what his state of mind was at the time, and his feelings towards his country are amply demonstrated in that video.’

Hussain made a second video outside Hounslow barracks with Haroon Ali Syed, 19, from Hounslow, West London who was jailed for life earlier this month for plotting a terrorist attack on an Elton John concert in Hyde Park. 

One source said that Hussain and Butt were ‘close pals’ and Hussain ‘could easily have gone on to be part of the same plot’ had he not been arrested.

Hussain was also an associate of the jailed preacher Anjem Choudary and was at a meeting with other senior lieutenants at Chalvey Community Centre in Slough in June 2014 which was closed down by police.

He had been sending radical material to Mohammed Sufiyan Choudry, 23, another preacher from Maidenhead, Berks, who was jailed earlier this year after talking about trucks full of explosives driving down Oxford Street.

Another recipient, Mohamed Abdulkadir Osman Mayow, 23, a former Asda worker from Hayes, West London, calling himself Abu Zubayr, was jailed for five years and two months in February for spreading terrorist propaganda.

Taha Hussain at an Islamic roadshow street stall in an image from his Youtube account

His contacts also included Omar Hussain, a Morrison’s security guard from High Wycombe, Bucks, who went on to join ISIS using the name Abu Saeed al-Britanni.

Taha Hussain was found guilty of seven counts of disseminating terrorist publications but the jury at the Old Bailey was not told about his extensive radical connections.

Taha Hussain was found guilty of seven counts of disseminating terrorist publications but the jury at the Old Bailey was not told about his extensive radical connections

He used the encrypted Whatsapp and Telegram messaging services to disseminate documents and videos, including one called ‘Lions of the UK.’

One Youtube video, titled ‘Lions of the UK’, featured a soundtrack of a jihadi chant in Arabic and the words on the screen: ‘Jihad and the rifle alone. NO negotiation, NO conferences, and NO dialogue – Abdullah Azzam,’ a reference to the mentor of Osama bin Laden.

Hussain was with a friend, Faisal Ali, when they filmed each other on the day after the Paris attacks in November 2015, the Old Bailey was told.

Six separate clips were later found on his phone in which the men could be seen driving past the castle and Victoria Barracks and listening to an Arabic chant called a nasheed while giggling in excitement.

‘See that place over there? [Windsor Castle] InshaAllah, we’re going to [tear] up the British flag [replace it] with that of sharia inshaAllah, of the Emir al-Mumineen [Leader of the Faithful] Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi,’ Hussain said.

‘He’ll come for holiday,’ Ali added. ‘Allahu Akbar, AllahuAkbar [god is great]!’

‘My dear brothers and sisters, it’ll go down,’ Hussain continued. ‘You’ll see the sharia over their own houses, alhamdulillah, alhmadulillah [praise god]!’

Ali yelled: ‘Dawlatal Islam baqiya! [ISIS will last for ever]’ and Hussain responded: ‘Alhamdulillah [praise god].’

He added: ‘That’s right you sahawat [opponents] murtadeen [apostates] ya kuffar [you infidels]. Die in your rage!

‘Any MI5 and counter-terrorism following us home, we say to them also mutou bi ghaydhikoum [die in your rage] as well.’

Ali pointed out Victoria Barracks, adding: ‘One of the army barracks, British Army. As you can see here it says, recruiting now. Yeah, so is dawlah [ISIS].’

Hussain commented: ‘Alhamdulillah, you’re not following Islam. Wake up ya kuffar, when you going to wake up? When the angel mukra and nakira [angels of death] are punishing you.’

Hussain called the soldiers ‘baby butchers’ and ‘filthy kuffar’ [infidels] they talked about tearing down statues and ‘liberating’ Windsor.

On June 15 last year, Hussain participated in another drive-by video which was also found on his phone when he was arrested.

It showed him driving past the barracks of the 1st Battalion, Irish Guards in Hounslow, West London with Haroon Syed saying: ‘We are outside the British Barracks today, as you can see, the baby butcherers of the Muslims.’

As they drove past the barracks both occupants of the car repeatedly shouted ‘Takbir, Allahu Akbar! [god is great].’

Neither video was part of the charges against Hussain but showed his ‘mindset’ and his ‘hatred of the West and the British Army’, Mark Paltenghi, prosecuting told the jury.

He and his gang said Windsor Castle could become a holiday destination for ISIS leaders. Patrols around the castle were stepped up in the wake of the Manchester attack. File photo

Defending, Frida Hussain said the videos were ‘alarming, distasteful to put it mildly, and not very nice to look at’.

The court heard Hussain was ‘alienated from his school mates’ because of his religion, had low self-esteem and had now expressed remorse for his actions.

Speaking at sentencing, two months after Hussain continued to deny the offences at trial, his counsel added: ‘This is a young man who was immersed into a world of this nature from a very early age and (during) his formative years.

‘It is not too late for this young man to turn his life around. He’s motivated and committed to doing that.’

The judge added: ‘I accept that your immaturity and your joining to a group that you believed gave you a purpose were major factors in your becoming involved in these offences.

‘You say that you have now learnt to respect others and to respect authority, and have expressed a willingness to embark upon a deredicalisation programme whilst remaining within the Islamic faith.

‘You have severed contact with your past associates and appear committed to abandoning the radical path.

‘Whilst I can hope that these sentiments are genuine, I cannot ignore the fact that it was only two months ago that you were contesting these matters and that calls into question whether the remorse is genuine.’

Hussain, wearing a dark blue tracksuit, showed no emotion as he was sentenced.