Pair found guilty of preparing terrorist acts

Two men have been found guilty at Birmingham Crown Court of preparing to travel to Syria to commit terrorist acts in support of ISIS.

Safwaan Mansur and Hanzalah Patel, both aged 22, were convicted by the jury after just 40 minutes deliberation for being concerned in the commission, preparation and instigation of acts of terrorism between 31 May 2017 and 24 June 2017.

Police searched their family homes and began piecing together their intention to travel to Syria and join ISIS, finding that they had bought camping equipment, outdoor survival equipment and clothing and airline tickets before travelling initially to Germany and then onto Istanbul before contacting others to arrange a crossing into Syria.

They had broken down their journey in an attempt to evade surveillance using a mix of air travel and public transport, they had even booked a return flight with no intention of using it. The pair were detained by Turkish authorities and returned to the UK. They were arrested on 1 July 2017 by West Midlands Counter Terrorism officers when they arrived at Heathrow.

Mansur and Patel are due to be sentenced on 25 April.

Shaun Edwards, temporary head of WMCTU Chief Superintendent, said: "Mansur and Patel had deceived their parents with the ruse that they were going to read prayers at a mosque in Germany. Their families had no idea they were trying to travel to join Daesh, Patel had on his media devices links to an online guide on how to join the terrorist group and he made several successful credit card applications before using the funds to buy the outdoor equipment.

“On 15 June 2017, despite the pair supposedly heading for Germany, they bought two visas for their onward journey to Turkey and booked a hotel in Istanbul for a number of days. Electronic devices seized from Patel on his arrest in the UK contained graphic images, videos and text glorifying Daesh. The content gives an insight into their mind-set and showed they were developing an active interest in Daesh and Jihadi ideology."