A repeat terrorist offender has been jailed for nine years for sharing a Daesh video on Instagram on the anniversary of the 7/7 London bombings.
Shafi Saleem, 35, already had previous terrorism-related convictions before he reposted suicide bombing footage on his private social media feeds on July 7 2022.
On that day in 2005, four co-ordinated suicide attacks by Islamic terrorists in London killed 52 people and injured more than 770.
On Wednesday, Judge Angela Rafferty KC said the timing was “highly suspicious” as she jailed Saleem for nine years plus a further year on extended licence for dissemination of a terrorist publication.
The judge said she was sure he had posted the suicide bomb footage deliberately and found he continued to have an extreme mindset.
Since his conviction, the defendant had not accepted wrongdoing and instead claimed it was the result of a “misinterpretation” and being taken “out of context”, she said.
Judge Rafferty noted the defendant had loving parents and had been described as a “man of two halves”, whose extremist activity was limited to online.
The court had heard it was uncovered with help from an undercover operative who made online contact with the defendant in May 2022.
The defendant was arrested at Heathrow Airport last Valentine’s Day after taking a flight from Pakistan.
In his police interview, Saleem claimed the video he reposted had “been on TikTok and pretty much everywhere” and he had seen it “hundreds of times”.
But he insisted he had only watched the start of it and not the bombing section, which the prosecution had disputed.
Terrorism offenders always have conditions imposed upon them when they are released from prison into communities, to minimise the risk of reoffending and to protect the public. The fact that this is the second time Saleem has been found to breach these conditions shows how strictly police enforce them
Detective Chief Superintendent Hayley Sewart
Following an Old Bailey trial, Saleem, from east London, was found guilty in February of dissemination of a terrorist publication.
He had admitted breaching a notification requirement under the Counter Terrorism Act 2008 relating to a telephone he had attempted to hide from his supervising officer between July 22 2022 and February 16 2023.
He had used a secret Sim card to open a Facebook account which he used to post extremist comments, the court heard.
Saleem also admitted using threatening words to cause alarm to an arresting officer.
Judge Rafferty said the homophobic abuse directed at the police officer was “vitriolic and full of hate”.
Previously, Saleem was jailed for two years in February 2018 for encouragement of terrorism after posting images and messages promoting Daesh on social media.
Following his release in February 2019, he was on probation licence and subject to a Notification Order.
In December 2020, Saleem was jailed for 10 months for breaching the order a first time.
In mitigation, Shannon Revel spoke of the juxtaposition between the defendant’s behaviour in real life and his online persona, questioning: “Who is the real Mr Saleem”.
The court heard he had mild Autism Spectrum Disorder which was said to have compounded low self-esteem and withdrawal.
Ms Revel said: “In the future he recognises he will need to stay offline, keep focused and have some purpose to his day-to-day activities to mitigate any offending in the future.”
She said that during the defendant’s 531 days on remand, he had been moved from Wandsworth jail and placed on lockdown in Belmarsh with “severe restrictions” after an escape by another inmate, who he had nothing to do with.
Following his conviction, Detective Chief Superintendent Hayley Sewart, of the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command, said: “Extremist content online can cause serious harm in communities, particularly to young and other vulnerable people, and it is often intended to radicalise and recruit people to terrorist causes.
“That is why we work hard to identify people who post this kind of material, and to get it removed from websites.
“Terrorism offenders always have conditions imposed upon them when they are released from prison into communities, to minimise the risk of reoffending and to protect the public.
“The fact that this is the second time Saleem has been found to breach these conditions shows how strictly police enforce them.”
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