Den universitetsutdannede Rukshana Begum erkjenner å ha lastet ned to utgaver av al-Qaidas engelskspråklige magasin Inspire”, som blant annet inneholder en artikkel under tittelen ”Å gå til angrep på land som er i krig med muslimer”. Magasinet har et todelt mål: å få leserne til å støtte, finansiere og/eller å delta i jihad, der særlig vestlige land er målskiven, samt å gi praktisk veiledning om hvordan utføre terror. Mål som magasinet lister opp er ”overalt der jøder samler seg”, berømte personer, flyplasser
Begum møtte nylig i retten, iført niqab. Hennes brødre ble dømt til lange fengselsstraffer tidlig i år for å ha planlagt terror mot London børs. De to brødrene var del av en gruppe på ni al-Qaida-inspirerte personer.
A young graduate whose brothers are serving prison sentences for planning a terrorist attack on the London Stock Exchanged, has been jailed for downloading Al-Qaeda terrorist material in her mobile phone.
Ruksana Begum, 22, who has a first-class degree in accountancy, had two editions of Al-Qaeda’s Inspire magazine on her phone, including articles such as ‘Targeting the populations of countries that are at war with the Muslims’.
Ms Begum’s brothers, Gurukanth Desai, 30, and Abdul Miah, 25, were sentenced to 12 and 16 years respectively for their part in a plot to attack the London Stock Exchange, The Old Bailey heard today.
Ms Begum had just married when she moved to the capital in June, a mere month before anti-terrorist officers raided an address where she was staying in east London.
Ms Begum, who lived in Cardiff with her family prior to her marriage, was sentenced to one year in prison today, having plead guilty last month to possessing material which was likely to be useful to someone committing or preparing an act of terrorism.
Ms Begum, of north London, appeared with only her eyes visible beneath a black veil to be sentenced after being remanded in Holloway prison.
Kate Wilkinson, prosecuting, said: ‘These items contained both instructional and ideological material. The magazines are in English and are targeted at Muslims living in the West.
‘They contain two types of material: firstly, material which is designed to make the reader support, fund, or join the Jihad, and particularly to encourage the Western reader to attack the nation where he lives.
‘Secondly, the magazines provide practical guidance on how to commit acts of terrorism.’
Begum graduated with a first class degree in Accountancy from Cardiff University this year, and has applied for a masters at the same institution.
A paper copy of the South Wales Echo newspaper, whose front page on February 2 this year announced the conviction of her brothers of terrorist offences, was also found when police raided the London address.
Forensic experts analysed the contents of the memory card on Ms Begum’s mobile phone and found it contained two copies of Al-Qaeda propaganda magazine ‘Inspire’, along with traces of other literature that had been deleted.
STOCK EXCHANGE PLOT
Abdul Miah, 25, was jailed for 16 years and 10 months and Gurukanth Desai, 30, for 12 years after they pleaded guilty to the plot at Woolwich Crown Court in February this year.
They were part of a group of nine al-Qaeda inspired terrorists who planned to blow up the London Stock Exchange during a Christmas bomb blitz.
Other potential targets for ‘Mumbai style’ attacks included the London Eye, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, The Palace of Westminster, and the home address of Mayor Boris Johnson.
Cardiff brothers Desai and Miah had previously tested a pipe bomb after reading Inspire which contained a recipe ‘Make a bomb in the kitchen of your mom’.
Issue 8 included an article entitled: ‘Targeting the populations of countries that are at war with the Muslims’, alongside interviews of Al-Qaeda recruits.
It also showed readers how to use handguns, along with a guide on how to convert motorbike alarms into remote control detonators for explosives.
The following issue lists ‘important enemy targets’ in the US and other Western countries, including stock exchanges, airports, famous people, and ‘anywhere where Jews gather’.
Included in the magazine are instructions on how to start wildfires by using a timer from a washing machine to help build an ‘ember bomb’.
The court heard the Forensic Explosives Laboratory, a division of the Ministry of Defence, had analysed the instructions and concluded they were ‘accurate and relatively easy to follow.’
Burkha clad Begum was jailed at the Old Bailey today but has been on remand for 141 days and could be free in just under six weeks.
Hossein Zahir, defending, said Begum downloaded the material a few weeks before the raid because she wanted to understand why her brothers had taken the path they had.
He said: ‘She was confident that her brothers were innocent and they would be acquitted. Then they pleaded guilty.
‘She accessed this material, which is easily accessible, before coming to London to understand the background and ideology which led to her brothers’ incarceration.
‘She is an intelligent and articulate young woman who does not share the views of others who do not care.’
Judge Mr Justice Fulford called Ms Begum a ‘good Muslim’ and said there was nothing to suggest that Begum was herself involved in terrorist activity.
He added: ‘Instead, this defendant with other members of her family, was devastated by the arrest and later imprisonment of her brothers for serious terrorist offences.
‘The family, which was previously respected in the community where they lived in Cardiff, were ostracised.
Mr Justice Fulford said he accepted that Ms Begum had downloaded the magazines in order to explore and understand the charges which her brothers faced, but that material which can aid a terrorist and serious offences will always carry a prison sentence.
Passing sentence, he said: ‘It goes without saying this defendant’s criminality is not necessary increased by the guilt of her brothers.
‘But she is clearly moving in the milieu and that some of those close to her have serious Jihadist outlook and certainly as far as her two brothers are concerned, terrorist intentions.
‘That connection has caused me to scrutinize carefully whether she is a fellow traveller in the sense she supports those who commit serious crimes for ideological or religious reasons.’
But he noted when her brothers were arrested at their Cardiff home in 2010 her laptop was seized but there was no evidence she had any terror material or that she was part of demonstrations or participated in online Jihad chat-rooms.