From The London Evening Standard again.
A gap-year student who vowed to battle British soldiers with a Koran in one hand and a Kalashnikov in the other has been jailed.
Mohamed Abushamma, 21, was intercepted by anti-terror police in Turkey as he attempted to travel to Afghanistan to join pro-Taliban fighters.
The youth hoped to enter Afghanistan via its northern border with Tajikistan, after trekking over the mountainous border between the two countries.
Once there, he hoped to join mujihadeen fighters engaged in bloody fighting with coalition troops.
At Croydon Crown Court yesterday, Judge Mr Justice Bean sentenced Abushamma to three-and-a-half years' imprisonment after he pleaded guilty to preparing for acts of terrorism.
Prosecutor Alison Morgan told the court than in an email sent to his father and sister before his departure for Turkey, Abushamma "clearly indicated that he would be fighting with a Koran in one hand and an AK47 in the other."
Abushamma, who was due to start a course at University College London in September last year, decided to fight violent Jihad after being radicalised by reading extremist websites.
His lawyer Imran Khan told the court his client was from an illustrious' family - his grandfather was a general and his great-grandfather was the first president of the Sudan.
His parents had sent him to study medicine in the Sudan, after he failed to get into medical school in Britain when he only got an A and two Bs at A-level, but he refused to stay there and returned to Britain. He had also spent a year studying Arabic in Egypt.
Mr Khan urged the judge to give his client a suspended sentence, telling the court that he had repented of his actions and was now working to try and dissuade other young people from extremism.
Abushamma, of Britannia Row, Islington, North London, admitted engaging in conduct in preparation for committing acts of terrorism.