Woman guilty of possessing IS terror video

I thought there must be a reporting restriction imposed on this trial when the jury went out to deliberate last month and the case disappeared from the list with no news either way in either local or national newspapers. Until today. 

From the BBC and The Telegraph

A woman who applied to be a teacher at an Islamic Sunday school has been found guilty of possessing a terrorist document.

Dzhamilya Timaeva, 20, from Windsor, Berkshire, had an Islamic State group video that encouraged viewers to carry out arson attacks on buildings and land, the Old Bailey heard.

Dzhamilya Timaeva, 20, is facing jail after she was convicted of possessing the video, calling for arson attacks. She was arrested at Heathrow Airport as she was about to board a flight to Turkey in October 2022, the Old Bailey heard.

The video, called Incite the Believers, encouraged viewers,  if they did not have a gun or a knife, to carry out arson attacks on buildings, forests and agricultural land.

When she was questioned by police, Timaeva was shown the film and said: “It’s the first time I watched the video.” But when she was rearrested on March 2 2023, officers found she had made a voice note on her phone, bragging about how she had lied to police.

In December, Timaeva denied but was convicted of possession of a document for terrorist purposes in relation to Incite the Believers.

She was cleared of three charges of disseminating terrorist publications between October 2022 and March 2023, including one relating to a cartoon book called Little Muwahideen.The prosecution offered no evidence on a further charge of dissemination of a terrorist publication.

However, the dental nurse was found not guilty of disseminating terrorist publications.

Mark Lucraft, KC, the Recorder of London, has lifted restrictions allowing her conviction to be reported.

Timaeva and her family arrived in Britain in 2013 as refugees from Chechnya after being denied asylum in Switzerland and Luxembourg, the court was previously told.  They lived in Cardiff for six years until they were granted asylum in 2019, and moved to Windsor, Berkshire, where they still live.

Timaeva said earlier that Islam was central to her life and told jurors she had memorised the Koran at the age of 12.

She had 5,370 videos on her phone, many of which contained extremist content calling for violence against non-believers and Jewish people. She said the clips related only to freedom fighters in Chechnya wanting to free themselves from Russian control. Timaeva insisted much of the content had been downloaded automatically.

She was the head teacher at the Windsor Muslim Association and was due to begin teaching classes at the Tawheed Islamic Education Centre, a Sunday school in Maidenhead, the court heard.

Timaeva devised lesson plans and a curriculum for the children attending the Tawheed school. She printed 70 picture books to distribute to children called Little Muwahideen. The book instructs young readers that they have a “duty” of waging war for Islam.

Jurors were shown pages from the book, which refers to “overthrowing incomplete religions like democracy and capitalism”. Another page reads: “We have prepared for the disbelievers a humiliating torment.”

She was bailed ahead of sentencing on 7 March.