Man who went to Syria guilty of joining al Qaida-linked group
Despite pleas from his family, Giga did not return to the UK for nine years and was arrested upon his arrival on a flight from Turkey last May.
Following a trial at the Old Bailey, he was found guilty of preparation of terrorist acts between August 31 2015 and August 31 2016 by travelling to Syria to fight with the Jaysh Al Fath groups.
The court heard how Giga had left the home he shared with his parents and sister in Hounslow, west London, in August 2015 and informed them he had gone to Syria for jihad.
On September 11 2015 – the anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks in the United States – he told his sister: 'I have come here to fight for jihad. I'm based in Idlib province and I fight for Jaysh al Fath which is the rebel coalition which includes the Free Syrian Army up to al Qaida-linked groups.
'I have come here to fight against (Bashar) Assad and also to fight against Isis. I can't sit at home when fellow Muslims are in need and their religion is in danger.'
His father responded: 'Please don't do anything that will break my or your mother's or family's heart, stay within the bounds of true Islam and humanity, stay away from extremism and follow the Sunnah.'
But in a further message to his sister, Giga said he had finished his training and had been given the 'opportunity to fight on the front line in the near future'.
He told her: 'I hope more than anything to gain martyrdom while fighting against Isis or against the Assad regime but I fear death as much as anyone else so I am in need of your duas (prayers).'
The court heard that Giga's father did everything he could to try to convince his son to return home and travelled to Reyhanli, a small Turkish town close to the Syrian border.
In a letter to Giga from the border, he wrote: 'I have promısed your mum that somehow I will try my best to convince you to come out of there, and we will settle down anywhere in this world where you feel comfortable and happy…
'Can you for one minute imagine what the rest of her life will be like if something was to happen to you? Isa, her life wıll be destroyed and so will all of ours.
'It is on that basis I beg you to stay safe and come out of there immediately. And stay away from the front line because the Russians are using all kınds of firepower.'
However, Giga appeared to be set on 'martyrdom', the court heard.
Then in December 2015, Giga told his sister that he planned on doing charity work – although the organisation concerned had no record of it – and by August 2016 contact with his family petered out.
Eight years later, Giga was issued an emergency passport by the British Consulate in Istanbul.
Police were waiting when Giga arrived at Heathrow Airport on a Turkish Airlines flight on May 23 2024.
Following his arrest, Giga made no comment in police interviews but in a prepared statement denied he had travelled to Syria to fight or join any groups.
He claimed he had lied to his family about doing charity work, training, fighting and joining groups because he thought they would struggle to understand the idea of going there simply to live.
Giving evidence in his Old Bailey trial, Giga maintained that he had gone to Syria only to live in an Islamic state.
A jury deliberated for 10 hours and 26 minutes to reject his version of events and find him guilty by a majority of 11 to one.
Judge Mark Lucraft KC ordered a report and adjourned sentencing to October 17.
Commander Dominic Murphy, head of the Met's Counter Terrorism Command, said: 'We have been clear for some time now that anyone returning to the UK suspected of being involved in any terrorist-related activity overseas will be thoroughly investigated.
'We work very closely with other partners and agencies here in the UK and overseas in order to do this and help keep the public safe.
'As this case shows, we will always arrest those who return to the UK after fighting for a terrorist group, no matter how long it has been since they left the country.'
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mirror
11 hours ago
- Daily Mirror
Dwight Muhammad Qawi's death sees boxing lose a true legend and huge influence
Dwight Muhammad Qawi has died at the age of 72 and Barry McGuigan pays tribute to the influential fighter who fought against the likes of Leon Spinks and Evander Holyfield Boxing lost an all-time great this week with the passing of Dwight Muhammad Qawi. It was because of fighters like him, a full-on, aggressive, attacking fighter, that I fought the way I did, swarming all over people trying to knock the living day lights out of them. I remember Qawi as Dwight Braxton before he converted to Islam. They called him the Camden Buzzsaw after the town in New Jersey where he grew up. He was only 5ft 7ins but ended his career as a heavyweight. As a cruiserweight he gave Evander Holyfield a terrific battle in their first fight, but it was at light heavyweight that he shone, this chunky, tough marauder throwing punches in bunches like a featherweight. There was nothing featherweight when they landed. Qawi, a convicted armed robber, did not learn to box until he entered Rahway State Prison, New Jersey, which ran a boxing programme for inmates. Among the incarcerated was light heavyweight contender James Scott, who fought the majority of his career inside, including an unbelievable contest with Qawi himself after his release. Qawi had no qualms about returning behind bars and you could not take your eyes of it from start to finish. It turned out to be Scott's last fight, Qawi edging a close decision. His next fight against another Muslim convert and fearsome puncher Matthew Saad Muhammad was a barnburner. I thought it would be a hard fight for Qawi but he was just relentless. You can watch that fight every day of the week and not get bored. Everybody was scared of Saad's power, but Qawi just walked straight up to him, closed him down, pushed him back and bullied him, stopping Saad in the tenth. That is the way he beat everybody, on the front foot letting those vicious combinations go. He stopped Saad in five in their second meeting and had another notable victory against Leon Spinks before stepping up to face Holyfield. Qawi was one of the most exciting fighters I ever saw. In a light heavyweight division crammed with talent, really exceptional fighters and mostly big six-footers, Qawi turned out to be the best of the lot. I met in him 2005 when I was inducted into the Hall of Fame. I told him how much I admired him. He was thrilled. I'm glad I got the chance to tell him in person what a significant fighter he was and that he set my world alight. Boxing also said goodbye this week to trainer Don Turner, who was in Holyfield's corner for those incredible wins over Mike Tyson. RIP both, you did our sport proud.
Daily Mirror
14 hours ago
- Daily Mirror
Terrorist 7/7 London bombings and 9/11 plotter 'could walk UK streets in days'
Haroon Aswat, 50, originally from West Yorkshire, could soon be freed despite admitting his role in the attack on the World Trade Center and the 7/7 London bombings A terrorist who helped mastermind 9/11 and the 7/7 London bombings could soon be freed in the UK despite being a 'risk to national security'. Haroon Aswat, 50, was jailed for 20 years in 2015 in New York over terror offences and deported back to the UK in 2022. He has since been detained in a secure hospital, with his release expected soon to his family in West Yorkshire. He had been involved in setting up a 'terrorist training camp' in the US with radical cleric Abu Hamza in the 1990s and has admitted his role in 9/11 as well as the London bombings in 2005. It comes as Putin warns of nuclear war after unleashing another night of hell on Ukraine. He admitted to a psychiatrist 'I am a terrorist' before he was deported back to the UK and US court documents reveal that he also confessed to being a 'mastermind behind the (9/11) attacks and a 2005 attack in the UK', reports The Sun. Aswat has also threatened to kill Jews, Christians and other Muslim groups, and it is feared that he could be released onto streets in the UK without a full risk assessment within days due to a legal loophole blocking him from stringent checks. Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick reportedly said: 'This despicable man was behind one of the most deadly attacks in modern history. He should never experience freedom again." At a hearing in April, the Metropolitan Police applied for a 'notification order', meaning Aswat would be subject to certain requirements about informing police of his whereabouts and personal life upon his release. In a ruling, Mr Justice Jay approved the order for 30 years, which Aswat did not oppose. But he said that despite a psychiatrist's finding in 2022 that there 'remains the risk of Islamic violent extremism' by Aswat, no risk assessment had been carried out. In his judgment, Mr Justice Jay added: 'Although (the psychiatrist) did not conduct a full risk assessment for terrorist risk, he identified 15 of the 22 relevant factors … as being likely to be present.' He added: 'No formal terrorist risk assessment has been carried out in the United Kingdom since the defendant's return here. The circumstances of his detention have precluded that. However, on the basis of the material which is available, the defendant has been assessed by various police officers … that he remains a risk to national security.' He said that the psychiatrist had concluded 'there remains the risk of Islamic violent extremism-motivated targeted terrorist offending behaviour given his threats to kill Jews, Christians and certain groups of Muslims … (t)here is also a risk of him influencing other vulnerable individuals, as when he is in an abnormal mental state his religious extremist rhetoric is amplified by mental illness'. And a US District Court document shows how he admitted his role in terrorist activities. It stated: 'In March 2017 the defendant stated, 'if you think I am a terrorist, I don't shy away from my responsibility' and also stated he was a mastermind behind the 9/11 attacks and a 2005 terrorist attack in the UK.' The papers also reveal that Aswat was in contact with Osama bin Laden and trained in al-Queda camps in Afghanistan before the attack on the World Trade Center in 2001. Police also traced 20 calls made by 7/7 bombers to a phone connected to Aswat. In his witness statement Det Chief Supt Gareth Rees, head of operations for the Met's SO15 Counter Terrorism Command, said of Aswat: 'He has spoken positively of his time with al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and expressed aspirations to reconnect with them. 'Based on my experience, this is conduct which gives me grave concerns about the risk which the defendant poses to the UK's national security and to the public. The assessment of medical practitioners is that he currently has capacity to make complex decisions and understand complex restrictions when mentally he may temporarily lose capacity if he were to relapse into a psychotic state.' Aswat, who is now 50, helped to set up a terrorist training camp in Oregon and Seattle in the US from 1999, which the American government described as a camp 'to train young impressionable men in America to fight and kill so that they could travel to Afghanistan to join forces with al Qaida'. He then travelled to Afghanistan to receive training from al Qaida in 2001, and in 2005 was arrested in Zambia and extradited to the UK. In August that year, he was then arrested in the UK because of an arrest warrant being issued for him in the US, and was eventually extradited. In March 2015, he pleaded guilty in the US to one count of conspiracy to provide support to a foreign terrorist organisation before January 1 2000, and to another charge related to providing material to a terrorist organisation. He was jailed for 20 years, but did not serve the full sentence due to 'periods of detention in this country awaiting extradition' being taken into account, Mr Justice Jay said. A Government spokesman reportedly said: "Protecting our national security is the very first priority of this government and if any individual poses a threat to that security, the police and intelligence services have a range of powers they can apply to deal with that threat. "We will always do whatever is necessary inside the law to protect the public from any risk posed by former terrorist offenders or people of terrorist concern." The Mirror has contacted the Ministry of Justice for comment.
Metro
14 hours ago
- Metro
Terrorist who 'confessed to masterminding 7/7 attack could be freed within days'
A convicted Al Qaeda captain could be released from detention in a psychiatric hospital within days without being formally risk assessed, it has been reported. Haroon Aswat, from Batley, West Yorkshire, was jailed in the US for 20 years in 2015 for plotting to set up a terrorist training camp in Oregon. He only had to serve seven years because of time spent at a psychiatric detention unit in the UK where he was taken after being arrested in Zambia in 2005 in the wake of the July 7 bombings in London. In 2022, he was deported to the UK and detained under the Mental Health Act, and has been held since at South London's Bethlem Royal Hospital. According to The Sun, a 'legal loophole' related to risk checks means the 50-year-old could walk free as soon as next week. A court hearing in April heard his release was 'expected in the relatively near future'. It was held to approve a notification order which meant authorities must be provided updates on his post-release whereabouts, such as his address. The Sun also reported that US court documents disclosed a confession by Haswat that he was a 'mastermind behind the 9/11 attacks and a 2005 terrorist attack in the UK'. It's not clear how the alleged confession was made or whether it led to any further investigation. Haroon was previously linked to the 7/7 bombings, although he was never convicted of playing a role in it. Police sources initially told newspapers that two of the suspected bombers had received around 20 calls from a mobile phone linked to Aswat. But they were not sure if the calls were made by 'the man himself'. Detectives investigating the 7/7 bombings traced 20 calls by the perpetrators to a phone linked to Aswat before the attack, but Aswat was never convicted of playing a role in it. A 2022 report by a psychiatrist found there 'remains the risk of Islamic violent extremism' by Aswat. UK law means a formal terror risk assessment cannot be carried out while an individual is being detained in this way. The judge presiding over the April hearing said at the time: 'Although (the psychiatrist) did not conduct a full risk assessment for terrorist risk, he identified 15 of the 22 relevant factors … as being likely to be present. 'No formal terrorist risk assessment has been carried out in the United Kingdom since the defendant's return here. The circumstances of his detention have precluded that. 'However, on the basis of the material which is available, the defendant has been assessed by various police officers … that he remains a risk to national security.' He said that the psychiatrist had concluded: 'there remains the risk of Islamic violent extremism-motivated targeted terrorist offending behaviour given his threats to kill Jews, Christians and certain groups of Muslims … (t)here is also a risk of him influencing other vulnerable individuals, as when he is in an abnormal mental state his religious extremist rhetoric is amplified by mental illness'. More Trending Aswat, who is now 50, helped to set up a terrorist training camp in Oregon and Seattle in the US in 1999. The US government described it as a camp 'to train young impressionable men in America to fight and kill so that they could travel to Afghanistan to join forces with Al Qaeda'. He then travelled to Afghanistan to receive training from Al Qaeda in 2001, and did not appear on the radar of Western authorities until his 2005 arrest in Zambia. In March 2015, he pleaded guilty in the US to one count of conspiracy to provide support to a foreign terrorist organisation before January 1, 2000, and to another charge related to providing material to a terrorist organisation. Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@ For more stories like this, check our news page. MORE: Why was an innocent electrician shot and killed by police 'in cold blood'? MORE: 17-year-old 'white' boy arrested in counter terror operation in Wales MORE: Readers discuss royal value, road rules, seagulls and Spitting Image
