Woman from Birmingham sent Islamic State videos to undercover cop
A Birmingham woman who sent graphic videos promoting Islamic State terrorism to an undercover cop has been jailed for five-and-a-half years.
Aaminah Amatullah, 39, of Livingstone Road, Handsworth, had shown an “entrenched extremist mindset” during encrypted Telegram conversations with who she thought with a Muslim woman.
Yet the ‘friend’ turned out to be an undercover cop and she was arrested. She has now been jailed after being previously found guilty of two charges of distributing a terrorist publication following a trial.
Simon Davies, prosecuting at Birmingham Crown Court, said the defendant used the encrypted Telegram message service to send the videos.
He said on May 21 2019 the undercover officer sent a friend’s request on Facebook to Amatullah which she accepted.
“Unbeknown to the defendant she was actually in contact with on line with an undercover officer called Gaz,” he said.
He said that the officer was posing as a 26-year-old female Muslim convert who could speak English, French and Arabic and whose name on line was ‘Gare Du Nord.’
He said that during the online ‘relationship’ Amatullah had “two personas” and on WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook she would speak about everyday things, such as food and cooking.
However, her conversations on Telegram were centred around her in.terest in Islamic State which “showed her true colours and mindset.”
Mr Davies said that on September 17 she sent the undercover cop an ISIS video that “left nothing to the imagination.”
It lasted for just over 16 minutes, said Mr Davies, and showed ISIS fighters involved in a battle and showed dead and injured fighters, plus a background of chanting music.
Some fighters spoke directly to the camera and the commentary “encouraged the viewer to terrorise the Kafirs, the disbelievers in their own lands.”
Mr Davies said Amatullah had also sent the officer an English translation of a speech from the leader of Islamic State.
On September 21, he said, following discussions about camps in Syria, the defendant sent a second video, lasting just over five minutes, which included scenes from Islamic State’s final stand in eastern Syria.
“It is particularly distressing and depicted images of dead bodies and children,” he said.
“It talks about retribution and retaliation and seeking revenge for what had happened. It is a call to arms.”
He said Amatullah did not send any more videos but the direction of the conversations with the officer remained Islamic State related and she also referred to advice about online security.
Mr Davies said the defendant was arrested in November last year and her mobile phone was seized and interrogated.
He said that she had only had that phone for a short time but images discovered on it, including a picture of a man wielding a firearm, showed an affiliation with Islamic State as did the the people listed in her contacts. It also contained audio files of Islamic State chants.
In passing sentence Judge Paul Farrer QC said: “I have no doubt by 2016 you held an extreme Islamic mind set.
“One of your social media contacts was arrested for terrorism offences in the Philippines.
“Your actions demonstrate that you are a committed extremist.
“You believed you were sending videos to a female Muslim convert living in Northampton who shared your views.
“I have no doubt you were aware of the nature of the video.”
Tanveer Qureshi, defending, said although the videos were “disturbing, troubling and shocking.” they were not instructional for a specific terrorist activity and were designed for propaganda and whipping up hatred.
“Telegram in itself is not a sinister platform. It is a chat facility,” he said.
“It is a publicly available tool. This was a defendant who was habitually using Telegram.
“She had her personal mental health difficulties throughout this time. She built up a virtual world and was using it to seek some emotional salvation.
“She was trying to find friends on the computer.”
Source: Today UK News
