Three men, including one from Coventry, have today been jailed for terrorism offenses.
Two of the men were planning to travel to Iraq to engage in terrorism. One of them was arrested by counter-terrorism officers hiding in the back of a lorry in Dover, as he attempted to leave the country undetected.
Shivan Azeez Zangana, 21, who uses the surname Azeez, was sent to the UK by his family to keep him safe after battling extremists with the Kurdish separatist group.
But after falling in with “a nest of rats” here, he was turned by a fellow Kurd, asylum-seeker Aras Hamid, 27, and agreed to change sides and go with him to fight for IS, Kingston Crown Court in London was told. The 19-year-old, of Portwrinkle Avenue, Courthouse Green, was today jailed for 18 months at Kingston Crown Court in London.
Aras Mohammed Hamid, 26, of no fixed address, was found guilty of two counts of preparing for acts of terrorism and Shivan Hayder Azeez Zangana, also known as Azeez, 21, from Washington Road, Sheffield, was convicted of one offense of preparing for acts of terrorism.
Aziz had claimed that he wanted to go home to Iraq but evidence proved that he had in fact been radicalized by Hamid and his purpose for wanting to travel was to join Daesh.Aziz was jailed for three years.
Hamid, who entered the UK illegally in September 2015, had arranged to travel to the war zone to fight for a Kurdish IS unit, the Salahaddin Battalion, documents found on his phone showed.He used code names including “car wash” to mask their intentions and arranged covert meetings, including in a Coventry park and a cemetery.
Giving evidence in their trial last year, Hamid admitted he wanted to die a martyr’s death and the jury heard that he exchanged messages with other extremists, telling one “we will die as martyrs in the holy land of the caliphate”.
