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Would-Be Jihadi Searched 'Reasons To Join IS'

Would-Be Jihadi Searched 'Reasons To Join IS'

A teenager has been jailed for plotting to join militants in Syria after a court heard he searched the internet for 10 Reasons To Join Islamic State and How To Travel To Syria These Days.

British-born Syed Choudhury, who last month pleaded guilty at the Old Bailey to preparing acts of terrorism, was sentenced to three years and four months.

The 19-year-old's online searches also included Turkey Travel and Jihadist Highway, while on Twitter he asked for advice on how to join IS in Syria.

He also downloaded extremist material including the image of Jihadi John before he beheaded a Western hostage.

During a rant to officers while in custody, Choudhury, from Bradford, said he did not care about the UK and its laws and wanted to be the one to bring Sharia law to the UK

Jailing him today, judge Peter Rook QC, said: "The bluntness of what you said on that occasion is chilling. It reveals your dangerousness."

The judge added, however, that given his young age, Choudhury was "immature" and "impressionable to indoctrination".

Choudhury's extreme religious views first surfaced in 2012 after he had left home to begin a course in business administration, IT, key skills and car mechanics at Cardiff and Vale College.

He was heard saying gay people should be killed and would go to hell.

As part of an IT project, he made a poster reading Islam Will Dominate The World Freedom Can Go To Hell.

In May 2013, Choudhury left college with qualifications at a level below GCSE and went to Bangladesh - where his father was born - for a few months before returning to Cardiff, where he stayed with an aunt and uncle.

The court heard he was radicalised by people he regarded as elders.

He had saved around £3,000 from working in a fast-food restaurant and at other unskilled jobs so he could go to Syria, prosecutor Sarah Whitehouse QC said.

But he never found anybody to go with.

In 2014, he attended a demonstration about the Gaza conflict brandishing a banner stating IS will bring peace to the Middle East.

This brought him to the attention of anti-radicalisation group Prevent, but he rebuffed their approaches, the court heard.

In mitigation, his lawyer Abdul Iqbal QC said the case showed a "lack of sophistication, some naivety and level of immaturity". He said his client was openly using Facebook and Twitter accounts that could easily link him to incriminating material.

The barrister said Choudhury now felt embarrassed by some of the things he said in the police interview, and that he had been susceptible to the extremist ideas of "older men who he regarded as more learned than him".

Choudhury, whose Bangladeshi father never lived in the UK, was abandoned by his mother, a British citizen, shortly after his birth and was brought up by relatives in Bradford.

He will spend half his sentence in a young offenders institution, and in line with new legislation, he would have an extra year on licence, the judge ruled.