A Birmingham teen, Shaan Farooq, was sentenced to five-and-a-half years for possessing and distributing Islamic State materials found at his home.
Birmingham: A teenager named Shaan Farooq has been convicted for having and sharing terrorist materials. Police searched his home in Saltley on July 11, 2022. They found a phone, laptop, tablet, and iPad filled with extremist content supporting Islamic State.
The 19-year-old planned to share this material to promote terrorism. He was arrested in August 2022, alongside his friend Amir El-Harith, who was also suspected of terrorism-related offenses.
In December, Farooq was found guilty of three counts of distributing terrorism material. He had already admitted to possessing such material from May to July 2022.
On January 31, at Birmingham Crown Court, he received a five-and-a-half-year sentence for his actions. El-Harith, 20, was sentenced to six-and-a-half years last July for similar offenses.
El-Harith was convicted of sharing videos to encourage terrorism between April and June 2022. He also published videos on Instagram to promote terrorist acts.
El-Harith pleaded guilty in December 2023 to possessing information on creating explosives. He received a sentence of three years and ten months for each count, to run concurrently.
Despite his arrest, he continued accessing extremist content while on bail. He also received a four-year serious crime prevention order, starting upon his release.
A spokesperson from the West Midlands Police Counter-terrorism Unit emphasized the importance of public reports in tackling terrorism. They encourage anyone who sees suspicious activity to report it confidentially.
