The Telegraph and Argus

October 1, 2014

TWO brothers from Bradford have walked free from court, despite admitting 11 terror-related charges between them.

Muhammed Saeed Ahmed, 21, and Muhammed Naeem Ahmed, 20, from the Little Horton area of the city, had both admitted possessing terrorism handbooks, but denied plotting to attend a terrorist training camp.

Yesterday, they were given suspended prison sentences for the lesser offences after Judge Gerald Gordon decided not to go ahead with a re-trial on the charge of conspiring together and with others to attend a place used for terrorist training following an aborted trial last year.

Saeed Ahmed was sentenced to 22 months and Naeem Ahmed to 15 months, both suspended for two years at The Old Bailey yesterday. Between them they had admitted 11 charges under Section 58 of the Terrorism Act for possessing a record of information likely to be of use to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism.

Saeed Ahmed had also pleaded guilty to a further seven fraud offences.

When the North East Counter Terrorism Unit raided their home in March 2012, they found material including The Al Qaeda Manual and 44 Ways of Supporting Jihad.

Although the brothers admitted possessing the material, they denied a charge of conspiracy to attend a place used for terrorist training. They both stood trial on that charge last November, but jurors failed to reach a verdict after seven days of deliberation. Yesterday the brothers were told there would not be a re-trial on that charge.

In the first trial, jurors were told that the pair from Bradford were “radicalised” by their brother-in-law Muhammed Shafaraz Ahmed, who pleaded guilty last year to an offence of preparing for acts of terrorism.

When the house, the address of which cannot be reported for legal reasons, was raided in 2012, police found a GPS device, night vision goggles, high quality LED torches and sleeping bags for use in very cold conditions, the court had heard. Other items allegedly included high grade military clothing and a copy of an SAS survival handbook.

The prosecution case accused them of preparing to leave England for the Yemen and Afghanistan by going on “training trips” to Snowdonia and the Brecon Beacons.

But the Ahmeds’ father told the court his sons were merely preparing to go on a family holiday in Bangladesh.

During that trial, police investigating the brothers were accused of making “an error” in recording evidence found during a raid on the pair’s family home.

Defending the older brother, Andrew Hall said photographic evidence – which also included images of items having been placed in a range of different locations in the room – was “mis-leading” after police said photographs were only taken following an initial “safety search” of the room which caused certain items to be moved – a procedure not mentioned in the witness statement, the court heard.