London man convicted of terrorism offence

A London man has been convicted of a terrorism offence after traveling to Syria with intent to commit acts of terrorism, following an investigation by the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command.

Isa Giga, 32, previously of Hounslow in west London, was arrested at Heathrow Airport on 23 May 2024 after alighting from a flight from Turkey. He was later convicted, in July, of an offence contrary to section five of the Terrorism Act, 2006, following a two-week trial at the Old Bailey.

Evidence included emails and social media messages from Giga’s family, which proved he had travelled to Syria to “fight for Jihad”. Messages sent form Giga on a social media platform to an undercover officer in June 2016 saw Giga explain that he “never knew about jihad until 2015”

Met counter terrorism police had been notified in 2018 that Giga had travelled to Syria, via Turkey, to fight for the Jaysh Al Fath group, part of an alliance of Islamist armed factions fighting in the Syrian civil war, including an Al-Qaeda affiliated group.

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 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.”

He will be sentenced at the old Bailey on 17th October.