An Iraqi-born barber jailed for four years for sending terrorist propaganda videos is the fourth man from a pro-Islamic State WhatsApp group to be sentenced, it can now be reported.
Mohammed Hamad, 30, pleaded guilty on Tuesday, the first day of his trial at Liverpool Crown Court, to two counts of disseminating terrorist publications from the so-called Islamic State (IS), also known as Daesh.
At his sentencing hearing on Friday, the court heard Hamad was in a WhatsApp group with people who shared his beliefs and support for IS, described as a “terrorist organisation that encourages and glorifies religious and political violence”.
Also in the group was Roshman Saaed, 30, who was jailed for 12 years after he was found guilty following a trial in Birmingham last year of six counts of dissemination of a terrorist publication – three of which were shared to the same messaging group – and one count of entering into a terrorist funding arrangement.
Tshko Mohamad, 33, from West Bromwich, was jailed for seven years after he was convicted of entering into a terrorist funding arrangement and Omar Ahmadi, 24, from Sheffield, was jailed for five years and seven months after pleading guilty to the same offence.
Their convictions could not be reported until restrictions were lifted on Friday.
David Earl, prosecuting, said Hamad had come to the UK illegally from Iraqi Kurdistan in 2016.
He told authorities his life would be in danger and he would be arrested if he returned to his home country, the court heard.
Hamad said he had been a student of preacher Mullah Shwan, who he said used to teach him the Koran but had recently “joined Daesh”.
He told interviewers: “Because I was his student, police called me to attend a meeting so I’ve run away for my life.”
The court heard in June 2022 Mohamad sent a voicenote to Saaed telling him to set up the group with “trusted brothers of the same belief and agenda”.
The group, which included Hamad, was set up later that day with the introductory message: “Swearing by the almighty Allah, we have given a pledge of allegiance to almighty Allah that we will come to you under the flag of the Islamic State caliphate in whatever hole you are in this world.
“Otherwise we will, by Allah, separate your head from your body.”
Hamad shared a “pro-Islamic State mindset” with others in the group, the court heard.
One video shared by another user showed a shackled soldier on fire with the caption: “It contains roasting. It is very tasty.”
The court heard Hamad sent two videos in the group.
Mr Earl said the first, sent on December 9 2022, showed someone who claimed to be a student of Mullah Shwan, who appeared in numerous IS videos before he was killed, alongside other IS fighters, in 2015.
The video referred to soldiers of the so-called Islamic State and to “brothers” being skilled in “IED”, meaning improvised explosive devices, Mr Earl said.
A second video was sent by Hamad on January 18 and showed three prisoners being beheaded in the street.
In a speech before the beheading, the man in the video said he was acting in revenge for an attack on Muslim people and promised: “We will slaughter you one by one.”
Mr Earl said: “The videos were sent intending them to be a direct or indirect encouragement or other inducement to the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism.”
The group was discovered in March 2023 when Ahmadi was arrested at Stansted Airport on his way to Turkey, with £7,000 hidden in baby milk powder tins.
When Hamad, who had a Kurdish Sorani interpreter in the dock, was arrested at his home in Wavertree, Liverpool, in March last year, he told officers: “I lost my phone a long time ago. I want a solicitor.”
Kate O’Raghallaigh, defending Hamad, said: “The court has seen evidence which is entirely consistent with this man being, in his real life, consistently a hard-working local barber in Liverpool who is not religious, not devout, leads a typical western lifestyle, attends nightclubs and so forth.”
Judge Neil Flewitt KC asked: “Doesn’t it rather beg the question, which is the real life?”
Photographs of Hamad at social events, including his own wedding, were submitted to the court along with a letter from his wife, who sat in the public gallery.
Sentencing, Judge Flewitt said: “It is said that you live a characteristic western lifestyle, with many gay and lesbian friends, respecting everyone equally.
“On that basis, it is submitted that these offences represent an aberration in your life and undermine any suggestion that you are a committed ideologue.
“I have some difficulty with that submission because another interpretation of that material is that it demonstrates the hypocrisy of a person who is willing publicly to embrace a western lifestyle while privately supporting a terrorist organisation whose objective is to destroy it.”
Detective Superintendent Annie Miller, from Counter Terrorism Policing West Midlands, said: “It’s clear all these men were involved in supporting Islamic State.
“The group chat was used to promote propaganda and arrange to raise money in the UK to then send to IS to support their activities.
“It is entirely unacceptable to promote terrorism and we will not hesitate to investigate online behaviour or content which breaches terrorism or other criminal legislation.”
