London man convicted of funding terrorism

A barber from west London has been convicted of sending thousands of pounds to fund terrorist activity in Syria.

Tarek Namouz was found guilty of of eight counts of funding terrorism and two counts of possessing information likely to be useful for terrorism. He will be sentenced on 5 January 2023.

Namouz was arrested in May 2021 in a pre-planned operation by counter terrorism officers.

Extremist material was found on his phone, including Daesh propaganda material consisting of thousands of videos, messages, and documents which had been downloaded from Telegram. There was one video instructing on how to make an improvised explosive device and another on how to carry out knife attacks.

Officers also found messages between Namouz and a Daesh supporter in Syria talking about purchasing weapons and explosives to use against the Syrian government forces.

It was found that Namouz sent more than £11,000 to his contact in Syria.

Commander Richard Smith, who leads the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command, said: “Terrorist groups rely on funding to carry out their activities and to continue to operate.

“People like Namouz who provide money to terrorist groups - both in the UK and overseas - are enabling others to go and commit serious and deadly attacks, and we will always pursue and investigate those people and seek to bring them to justice.”

Image by Juraj Varga from Pixabay