Saturday, 21 July 2012
'Homegrown' British terrorist bride jailed over Jewish plot

There were no reports during this trial that I could find after the opening speeches. A month later there are now reports of verdict (guilty) and sentence (not quite long enough). This is  The Telegraph  

A serial bride who became a ''homegrown'' British terrorist after she met and married her third husband through a Muslim dating site was jailed for eight years today.

Hairdresser Shasta Khan, 38, had two failed marriages before becoming radicalised by Al Qaeda and inspired by Osama Bin Laden after she met ex-car valeter Mohammed Khan, 33, on an introduction site named ''Single Muslim'' because she was looking to marry the ''Islamic way.'' She ditched her Westernised and ''chilled out'' lifestyle in favour of strict traditional Islamic dress, stopped watching her favourite TV shows like Coronation Street and Eastenders and tuned into terrorist propaganda on the internet instead.

Shasta and her husband later began planning to build a DIY device using chapatti flour, hairdressing chemicals and a set of Christmas tree lights from supermarkets to launch a terrorist bomb attack upon Jewish communities in Manchester. They also carried out reconnaisance missons on possible targets including a synagogue in the Prestwcih area and she was said to have used her home-based hairdressing business Sassy Hair Studio as a front to seek targets as part of a ''personal jihad.''

Today at Manchester Crown Court, Shasta was convicted of engaging in conduct in preparation for acts of terrorism and two counts of possessing a record of information likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism.

She denied the charges. Her husband pleaded guilty to engaging in conduct in preparation for acts of terrorism. He was given an indeterminate sentence and must serve a minimum of seven and a half years before being considered eligible for parole.

They married in August 2010 and they were pictured enjoying a honeymoon in Turkey and looking happy and relaxed as they rode a jetski. But within weeks of the wedding the couple became strict Islamists with Khan wearing long white robes and growing a beard whilst she wore a burka.

They started reading and listening to extremist Al Qaeda-inspired media in November 2010 and behind the apparent normality of daily life, the couple believed in and supported an extreme ideology of jihad or holy war against the ''enemies of Islam'' -especially Jewish people.

Later the couple drove to Prestwich where he directed her to a Jewish temple and observed worshippers arriving and leaving. Whilst there Khan said: "We must kill them all."

Posted on 07/21/2012 11:49 AM by Esmerelda Weatherwax
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