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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
World
Anthony France

Newham man who shared terror videos on Instagram facing jail

A man is facing jail for sharing suicide bombing videos on Instagram.

Shafi Saleem, 34 – who has two previous terror-related convictions – was arrested at Heathrow Airport as he landed on a flight from Pakistan in February last year.

On July 7, 2022 he had posted Daesh propaganda footage on a private social media feed showing a series of suicide bombings.

They were uploaded on the anniversary of the 2005 London 7/7 attacks, which killed 52 people on three Underground trains and a double-decker bus.

At the Old Bailey on Tuesday, Saleem, of Forest Gate, Newham was convicted by a jury of dissemination of a terrorist publication. He will be sentenced at a later date.

Detective Chief Superintendent Hayley Sewart, of the Metropolitan Police’s Counter Terrorism Command, said: “Extremist content online can cause serious harm in communities, particularly to young and other vulnerable people, and it is often intended to radicalise and recruit people to terrorist causes.

“That is why we work hard to identify people who post this kind of material, and to get it removed from websites.

Terrorism offenders always have conditions imposed upon them when they are released from prison into communities, to minimise the risk of reoffending and to protect the public.

“The fact that this is the second time Saleem has been found to breach these conditions shows how strictly police enforce them.”

Plane lands at Heathrow (Alamy/PA)

Separately, Saleem previously pleaded guilty to breach of a Part 4 notification requirement under the Counter Terrorism Act 2008. This related to being in possession of an additional or unregistered SIM card.

He also admitted using threatening words towards officers when he was arrested.

In February 2018, Saleem received two years for the encouragement of terrorism after using more than 20 Twitter and Instagram accounts to promote Daesh on social media.

One of his tweets included an image of two zombie knives, with just the word “itching”.

Shafi Saleem (Metropolitan Police)

Another showed a second man holding the weapons, with the caption “dip dip dip”, meaning to stab.

Detectives trawling through one terabyte of data retrieved images of articles from terrorist magazines and videos of Osama Bin Laden and ISIS militants.

They also found a picture saved on Saleem’s Telegram app showing him posing with what appears to be a genuine handgun.

An image found on a laptop showed a meeting between a number of men including the convicted terrorists Anjem Choudhary and Mizanur Rahman.

Saleem was released from prison a year later and placed on probation, subject to a 10-year Part 4 Notification Order.

In December 2020, Saleem was jailed for 10 months for breaching this Part 4 requirement.

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