Two jihadist brothers have become the first Britons to be jailed for going to Syria to attend a terrorist training camp.
Hamza Nawaz, 24, and Mohommod Nawaz, 30, took photographs and videos of themselves as they travelled via France and Turkey to the war-torn state in August last year.
They were caught on their way home weeks later at the port of Calais where officials who searched their car found the older brother had stashed a “trophy” from their time there – five AK-47 bullets.
At a hearing at the Old Bailey today, the younger brother was jailed for three years. The older sibling and “prime instigator”, who was out of prison on licence at the time, was sent down for four-and-a-half years by judge Christopher Moss QC.
The judge said they had trained at the camp in support of rebels but there was no evidence they had actually engaged in fighting. Prosecutor Kate Wilkinson told the court the family of the brothers had reported them missing on August 25 last year after they failed to come home from a night out in Walthamstow, east London. They claimed they had gone to Scotland to do charity work despite a text from Hamza to say: “We’ve left to come to Syria. We know everyone will be angry with what we’ve done but its something we wanted to do.”
Police found timetable for typical day at training camp
Wilkinson suggested the brothers did not want to tell their family in advance because Mohommod was on licence having been jailed for six years in 2009 for blackmail, false imprisonment, kidnap and wounding.
When they were stopped on a ferry back to the UK on September 13 last year, a search uncovered five 39mm rifle cartridges for use in an AK-47 type rifle, mobile phones, a balaclava, heavy duty clothes and travel documents. Details of their travel plans to go by car to Lyon in France and then by air to Turkey bound for the Syrian border were found on a laptop in the bedroom of the older brother. Police also uncovered 19 photographs and videos from their time in Syria on an iPhone, the court heard.
There were several pictures of Mohommod posing in camouflage kit with an AK-47 rifle and a video clip showing road signs for Aleppo, East Al Bassett and Latakia. Another video of the defendants crossing a river in a small boat and into Syria from Turkey was of “real significance”, Wilkinson said.
Someone waiting to cross asked them: “Who do you support?” and they replied: “Junud Al-Shaam” meaning Soldiers of Damaskus, an extremist group in Syria. Then asked if they were there for jihad, they say “Jihad. Yeah”.
Police also found an image on the phone of a timetable for a typical day at the training camp including “military training” and “Islamic lessons”.