A healthcare student is facing jail after receiving a video recommendation to help him join ISIS from a terrorist planning a suicide bomb attack on Downing Street.
The film, given to Mohammad Imran, 22, was designed as a ‘gold card’ to help him join the terrorist group after his friend’s death.
His friend, Naa’imur Rahman, 21, planned to launch a suicide bomb and knife attack on Downing Street in which he hoped to behead Theresa May.
Believing he would die in the attack, Rahman made a video recommendation, intended as a message from beyond the grave.
Meanwhile, Imran told an undercover MI5 officer in an online conversation that he was prepared to attack Britain and then escape to join the terrorist group as a ‘two in one.’
Mohammed Aqib Imran has been found guilty of trying to join ISIS in Syria. He was given a ‘gold card’ recommendation by fellow jihadi Naa’imur Zakariyah Rahman (right), who planned to kill Theresa May in a suicide attack on Downing Street
Rahman helped his like-minded friend by recording an ISIS sponsorship video for him
Imran said he would maintain a deception of going to sixth-form college and seeking work placements, while actually planning to join ISIS during his half-term holidays.
He was living with his grandmother in Sparkbrook, Birmingham while studying at South and City College for a ‘Level 3’ certificate in health and social care after failing all his GCSEs.
His mother had confiscated his passport, fearing that he would use it to travel abroad and join ISIS, and he was desperate to get a fake one.
Imran met Rahman in Finchley, North London, days before Rahman was to receive the bomb and suicide vest he planned to use in the attack.
In fact, the explosives which were supplied to Rahman were fake devices, made by MI5, and handed over by an undercover officer.
Rahman was arrested and jailed for life earlier this year but the jury could not decide whether Imran, had tried to join the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or its off-shoot in Libya. He has now been convicted in a re-trial.
The pair were seen together in Birmingham as security services watched their activity
Imran aquired a fake passport ahead of his planned trip to join radicals in the Middle East
Prosecutor Mark Heywood QC told jurors: ‘At the heart of this case is a developing radicalisation in the minds of two men who came to know each other online and afterwards met and began to collaborate.
‘Both thought about travelling abroad to further their cause, going to a conflict zone such as Syria to lend support to violence. Each also contemplated carrying out terrorist acts of violence here in the UK.
‘Mohammed Imran – he elected to travel and set about assembling money, acquiring a fake passport, engaging in research and otherwise equipping himself with the information and means to travel aboard for violence for terrorist purposes
‘In the case of the other, Naa’imur Rahman, his conclusion was that lethal violence here, directed at the very heart of the UK Government, was the only effective way to pursue his intentions.
‘Before his arrest prevented it, he was, he believed, just days away from his objective, which was no less than a suicide attack by blade and explosion, on Downing Street and, if he could, upon Prime Minister Theresa May herself.’
The pair were seen at Maemes Piri Piri on High Road, North Finchley, in November 2017, the day before Rahman’s arrest. Rahman is pictured, right, after he was detained by officers
The court heard how Imran’s preferred destination was Libya or possibly Jordan with a view to onward travel to Syria.
He had saved money to pay for a fake passport and researched travel options, the court heard.
He downloaded the manual How to Survive in the West – a Mujahid’s Guide 2015 with a view to joining IS, the jury was told.
Imran, from Sparkhill in Birmingham, denied the charge against him, claiming he only wanted to get married to a woman in Denmark he had met online.
The jury deliberated for just under 18 hours to reject his explanation and find him guilty of preparing to engage in acts of terrorism.
In August, Rahman, who is originally from Birmingham, was jailed for life with a minimum term of 30 years.
CCTV captures Naa´imur Zakariyah Rahman and Mohammed Aqib Imran leaving the waiting area of Digbeth Coach Station, Birmingham
Judge Nicholas Hilliard QC, the recorder of London, requested a report from the probation service before sentencing on any potential ‘future risk’ from Imran, as it was ‘a really important question, the safety of the public’.
Imran is due to be sentenced on January 25.
Following the verdict, Jenny Hopkins, head of the Special Crime and Counter Terrorism Division in the CPS, said: ‘Mohammad Imran was desperate to join Daesh rather than remain in the UK.
‘He was ready to give up everything to kill in the name of a warped world view.’