ISIS recruitsTeenager who used student loan to fly to Syria to join ISIS sentenced to five years in jail
Yahya Rashid, 19, described by the British police as a street-smart teenager who conned his way into university and then spent his student loan on a trip to Syria to join ISIS, has been sentenced to five years in jailed. Rashid used a forged documents to gain acceptance to Middlesex University, and received £6,326.96 in student loans. He used the cash to buy five plane tickets for a trip to Turkey on 26 February so he and four friends could cross into Syria and join ISIS.
ISIS' planned expansion will require thousands of foot soldiers // Source: commons.wikimedia.org
Yahya Rashid, 19, described by the British police as a street-smart teenager who conned his way into university and then spent his student loan on a trip to Syria to join ISIS, has been sentenced to five years in jailed.
Rashid, of Willesden, north west London, used a forged certificate for a BTech level 3 diploma to gain acceptance to study electronics at Middlesex University, and received £6,326.96 in student loans. He used the cash to buy five plane tickets for a trip to Turkey on 26 February so he and four friends could cross into Syria and join ISIS.
Rashid and his friends left for Turkey through Gatwick Airport.
The Daily Mail reports that Sentencing Judge Philip Katz QC told the teenage terrorist: “You lied under oath before the jury and they saw through your lies and evasion.
“You used forged documents to get into university; you told the jury without shame that you did that as a quicker way to get a degree; you previous educational history has shown you to be disobedient and obstructive.
“You took £6,000 worth of taxpayer’s money to spend as you saw fit.”
Judge Katz continued: “Your attendance at university was poor, no doubt because you were wasting your time with other young radicalized men.
“You went to Wembley mosque with them watching gruesome ISIS material on the internet to pump yourselves up.
“There is some evidence to suggest your interest in Islamist groups predated these crimes.”
Rashid used his Facebook page t hold a chat with his father while he was on his journey, and the judge said that that chat “provides insight” into his character.
Judge Katz said: “You were deceitful, insincere. Goodness knows what you would have gone on to do as a foot-soldier for ISIS.’
“I’m not sure why you changed your mind and came back, but I’m inclined to think that it was to save your own skin.
“Luckily for you, your loving family still supports you.”
Judge Katz said he was convinced that Rashid is not mentally vulnerable. He said: “In my view the doctor hit the nail on the head when he described you as street-smart.”
They never made it into Syria, and after spending a few weeks in a Turkish border town, returned to the United Kingdom through Morocco, Rashid was arrested at Luton Airport on 31 March.
The defense lawyers argued that Rashid was a vulnerable young man who did not want to fight for ISIS but simply wanted to live in what he thought was an “Islamic utopia.”
The jurors, in a majority verdict, found Rashid guilty of preparing to commit an act of terrorism between 1 November 2014 and 31 March 2015 and a charge of assisting others to commits acts of terrorism over the same period.
Rashid will spend five years in a young offenders’ institution for the terrorism charge, and four months for the fraud charge.
