Manchester jihadi jailed for 10 years for being a member of Islamic State

A British jihadi whose group was linked to the Manchester Arena bomber has been jailed for 10 years for being a member of Islamic State.

Mohammed Abdallah, 26, went to Syria with help from his wheelchair-bound brother Abdalraouf, 24, who set up a ‘hub’ of communication for would-be fighters from his home in Manchester.

He was outed as an IS fighter last year when his IS registration document listing him as a ‘specialist sniper’ was leaked to Sky News by a defector.

Following an Old Bailey trial, Abdallah, of Westerling Way, Moss Side, Manchester, was found guilty of possessing an AK47 gun, receiving £2,000 for terrorism and membership of IS.

In mitigation, Rajiv Menon QC said there was no evidence Abdallah was ‘on a mission’ in the two years between leaving Syria after four weeks and the time his involvement with IS emerged.

Mrs Justice McGowan jailed Abdallah for 10 years with five years on extended licence.

He had been found guilty 24 hours earlier.

Mohammed’s brother had been left paralysed after he was shot while taking part in the 2011 Libyan uprising.

The judge said Mohammed had ‘bragged’ about acquiring weapons in messages and was ‘totally committed’ to signing up to IS.

Having seen first-hand people being maimed and killed in Libya, he was undeterred from travelling abroad again to ‘kill or be killed’ in Syria, she said.

She told him: ‘There is no evidence of possession of extremist propaganda material. The evidence of your mindset is to be found in your actions.

‘Your commitment to violence abroad is clear and you have not shown any sign of changing your views or attitudes.’

The court heard Abdallah had an IQ of 68 and had a previous conviction in 2013 for assaulting a police officer while drunk or high.

Mohammed had arrived in the UK at the age of three, after his family fled the Gaddafi regime in Libya.

He went to school in Manchester and attended the same Didsbury Mosque, where Manchester Arena suicide bomber Salman Abedi was also known to have worshipped.

That deadly attack in May left 23 dead and more than 500 injured.

The court heard during his trial that Mohammed did not regard himself as particularly religious and spent much of his time drinking and smoking cannabis.

The Abdallah brothers, who had dual Libyan nationality, joined the ‘Tripoli Brigade’ in 2011 and during a bloody battle against the Gaddafi regime, Abdalraouf was shot and paralysed from the waist down.

In the summer of 2014, Abdallah headed to Syria via Libya with fellow Libyan Nezar Khalifa, 27, planning to join IS with former RAF serviceman Stephen Gray, 34, and Raymond Matimba, 28, who were also from Manchester.

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Gray was turned away in Turkey, but Matimba eventually caught up with the others and recently appeared in footage with the late IS killer Jihadi John.

In 2016, Sky News received files from an IS defector which listed Abdallah as a specialist sniper with expertise with the “Dushka”, a Russian heavy machine gun, and fighting experience in Libya.

Giving evidence, Abdallah denied swearing allegiance, saying he only went to Syria to help deliver $5,000 to the poor and someone else must have filled out the form without his knowledge.

He said: ‘It’s true I refused to swear allegiance. They did send me to prison. I was threatened with being beheaded. I was shot at. I was hit. I had bruises and a black eye.’

In 2016, Abdalraouf Abdallah was found guilty of assisting others in committing acts of terrorism, and terror funding and jailed for five-and-a-half years.

Gray, of Whitnall Street in Manchester, admitted three terrorism offences, including his attempts to travel to Syria, and was jailed for five years.

Fellow Mancunian Hostey, described as an ”inspirational figure” for would-be jihadis, left the UK in 2013 and is believed to have been killed in a drone strike in 2016.