Mubashir Jamil guilty of preparing for acts of terrorism

This is the dramatic moment a straight A student who wanted to carry out a terror attack in the UK is arrested in a police raid just days before he planned to travel to Syria to join ISIS. 

Mubashir Jamil, 22, from Luton, offered to wear a suicide vest and ‘press the button’, the Old Bailey head today.

He filled out an ISIS application form and offered to blow himself up to bring the ‘taste of immense pain’ to innocent people on British soil following the terror attacks in Paris and Belgium.

Dramatic police head cam footage shows the moment officers charged into his house shouting ‘stay where you are’ and put him in handcuffs. 

Mubashir Jamil, 22, from Luton, offered to wear a suicide vest and ‘press the button’, the Old Bailey heard.

The once gifted schoolboy denied preparing acts of terror, saying he was hearing voices and wanted to go to Syria to be exorcised of the ‘jinns’ that were plaguing him. 

After being found guilty today, he was told he would be sentenced next month. 

The court heard how the avid computer gamer became obsessed with ‘martyrdom’ after surfing the web for ISIS propaganda.

He was snared in encrypted chat with an undercover officer, known as ‘Abu Hasan’, and counter-terrorist officers swooped to arrest him days before his Easyjet flight to Turkey.

Jamil, who suffered from periods of mental illness, made contact with the man he thought was an ISIS agent through the Telegram app, the court heard.

He told him: ‘If you or some brother you know can put an explosive belt on me and tell me how to press, as soon as possible for security reasons, I can do something in the UK even tomorrow after I find a good target.’

Jamil, who had never travelled alone before, bought a return flight from Luton to Turkey and stocked up on travel kit, including toiletries from Boots

He also packed  a Hawaiian shirt to make it look as though he was going on holiday

Jamil, who had never travelled alone before, bought a return flight from Luton to Turkey and stocked up on travel kit, including toiletries from Boots. He also packed a Hawaiian shirt to make it look as though he was going on holiday

He boasted how he was ‘not afraid of violent fighting, getting hurt and tortured and hurting others.’

The defendant, who set up an Argos punch bag at his home to get fit for jihad, went on to say he would ‘prefer hijrah (migration)’.

He also said: ‘I want them to feel another attack while they’re still in mourning for Belgium.’  

The court heard how Jamil shaved off his beard following guidance on an e-publication about how to be a ‘secret agent’ in a non-Muslim country. 

In early April last year, Jamil, who had never travelled alone before, bought a return flight from Luton to Turkey and stocked up on travel kit, including toiletries from Boots.

He also packed a Hawaiian shirt and other clothing to make it look as though he was going on holiday.

Barnaby Jameson, prosecuting, told the jury: ‘This was not so much sea and sun, as jihad and martyrdom, by EasyJet.’  

The jury heard he wanted to join ISIS to rid himself of 'evil spirits'

The 22-year-old former A-grade student set up an Argos punch bag at his home so he could get fit for jihad

The 22-year-old former A-grade student set up an Argos punch bag at his home (right) so he could get fit for jihad 

On April 14 Jamil allegedly asked Abu Hasan: ‘Will I have to buy my own guns in Sham?’ The officer told him not to worry.

The officer persuaded Jamil to send him a copy of his passport, photographs of himself and even a copy of the boarding pass for his flight to Turkey.

Just days before he was due to leave on April 30, counter-terrorist police burst into Jamil’s home on April 27.

At the time, he was on his laptop sending the undercover officer the message ‘police alert’.

He told police: ‘I want to go to and join Islamic State’, adding: ‘It’s easy to arrest me, a lone person. There are other people here who are dangerous and have access to weapons.’

He also said: ‘What will you do when Islamic State reach these shores, they won’t be so easy to stop then. And they will come. The Islamic State…you have tried to stop their rise and you have failed.’ 

The court heard how the former Challney High School for Boys pupil got A grades in his GCSEs and did work experience at an accountancy firm.

He worked in a local Amazon warehouse to save up nearly £2,000 to travel to Turkey and listed his interests as reading fiction, surfing the internet and physical training. 

He spent most of his free time at the home he shared with his mother, younger brother and younger sister, playing computer games or surfing the web. 

His interest in ISIS began in around April 2014 as he searched for jihadi chants online, but his research deepened from November 2015 as he trawled the web for propaganda videos produced by the terror group. 

Prosecutor Mr Jameson said: ‘It was through the internet that the defendant was drawn into a world poles apart from that of the once gifted schoolboy with A* in both the arts and sciences.

Jamil worked in a local Amazon warehouse to save up nearly £2,000 to travel to Turkey

Jamil worked in a local Amazon warehouse to save up nearly £2,000 to travel to Turkey

‘He became a would-be ISIS recruit willing to sacrifice his life for ISIS and indeed the lives of others.

‘He turned from a player of video games into someone willing to carry out suicide attacks in this country on behalf of ISIS.

‘His preference, however, was to go to Syria and join ISIS as a jihadist fighter.’

The court heard how Jamil scoured Twitter for pro-ISIS feeds, including one which praised last year’s Belgian bombings.

Jurors were shown extracts of ‘upsetting and disturbing’ images and documents taken from Jamil’s computer.

Among them was a profile dedicated to a 23-year-old British fighter of Pakistani origin who was shot in the eye and ‘martyred’. 

 

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