Jailed British terrorist who fled to Syria to affix ISIS ‘as a result of he was being harassed by MI5’ may quickly be freed

A fanatical British terrorist who claimed he was pressured to flee to Syria to attempt to be part of ISIS as a result of he was being ‘harassed’ by MI5 and ‘tortured’ by unidentified ‘shadowy figures’ has a uncommon two-day parole listening to – and will quickly be freed.

Zakariya Ashiq, then 20, of Coventry, was jailed for six years in 2015 after being convicted of preparing acts of terrorism in a bid to realize his ambition of changing into a martyr.

Ashiq left the UK on the sixth November 2014 on a bus from Victoria station in London and made his method through Amsterdam, Frankfurt and Bulgaria to Jordan, his Previous Bailey trial heard.

However when he did not cross the border to succeed in his meant vacation spot of Syria, he flew again to Heathrow the place he was arrested on 20 November, 2014.

Ashiq denied being a wannabe terrorist and claimed he had been focused by M15 and males in balaclavas who had kidnapped him off the road in Coventry on quite a few events, blindfolded and put him in handcuffs and interrogated him.

Fanatical British terrorist Zakariya Ashiq (pictured) who claimed he was pressured to flee to Syria to attempt to be part of ISIS as a result of he was being ‘harassed’ by MI5 and ‘tortured’ by unidentified ‘shadowy figures’ has a uncommon two-day parole listening to – and will quickly be freed

Zakariya Ashiq, then 20, of Coventry, was jailed for six years in 2015 after being convicted of making ready acts of terrorism in a bid to realize his ambition of changing into a martyr

Ashiq additionally claimed he had been waterboarded – tortured by pouring water by means of a towel straight right into a sufferer’s mouth, simulating drowning.

However the jury at his trial had been informed that his extremism was laid naked when WhatsApp messages to 2 mates who had already gone out to the battle zone had been recovered by police.

In them, Ashiq described to Ali Kalantar and Mohammed Ismail hitch-hiking and sleeping in mosques throughout his journey throughout Europe to affix them.

He appealed to them for assist to get into Syria, saying the second he received the possibility he would do ‘Ishtishadi (martyrdom) in opposition to any… all these folks’.

In a single message, he pleaded: ‘Oh, severely man, simply get me there, man… I do not know the way you gonna get me, however you need to get me throughout.’

Ashiq’s extremist sympathies had been additionally uncovered in different WhatsApp messages learn out to the jury. In a single he wrote: ‘There is no such thing as a life, there is not any life with out Jihad.’

He additionally spoke of his admiration for Islamic State utilizing the net web site Chat Roulette, the courtroom heard.

And he searched on his laptop for phrases corresponding to ‘IS beheading journalist’ and ’44 methods to help Jihad’ and Islamic preacher Anjem Choudary.

Choose Charles Huge QC stated he knew what ISIS was and had been intent on preventing for them, saying: ‘Any suggestion of naivety shouldn’t be overstated. He’s extremely smart and resourceful.’

MailOnline can reveal that Ashiq has been granted a full parole listening to in entrance of a three-person panel on the twenty fifth and twenty sixth of October.

The choice to provide Ashiq a two-day listening to displays the complexity and delicate nature of the case. The panel is being requested to suggest he be launched on licence.

On the listening to, the panel will take oral proof from Ashiq’s community-based probation officer, the official accountable for supervising his case in jail, and a psychologist employed by the jail service.

The panel may even have entry to Ashiq’s jail file. The Secretary of State may even be represented.

The parole listening to will likely be scrutinised by Justice Secretary Alex Chalk, who underneath new powers has the fitting to ask the Parole Board to rethink any choice to launch Ashiq.

A spokesperson for the Parole Board stated: ‘An oral listening to has been listed for the parole evaluate of Zakariya Ashiq and is scheduled to happen in October 2023.

‘Parole Board selections are solely centered on what threat a prisoner may characterize to the general public if launched and whether or not that threat is manageable in the neighborhood.

‘A panel will rigorously study an enormous vary of proof, together with particulars of the unique crime, and any proof of behaviour change, in addition to discover the hurt finished and influence the crime has had on the victims.

‘Members learn and digest a whole lot of pages of proof and studies within the lead as much as an oral listening to.

‘Proof from witnesses together with probation officers, psychiatrists and psychologists, officers supervising the offender in jail in addition to sufferer private statements are then given on the listening to.

‘The prisoner and witnesses are then questioned at size throughout the listening to which frequently lasts a full day or extra.

‘Parole opinions are undertaken completely and with excessive care. Defending the general public is our primary precedence.’

Ashiq, captured on CCTV at a coach station as he was making an attempt to succeed in Syria. The jury on the Previous Bailey spent lower than two hours deliberating earlier than unanimously discovering the aspiring college scholar responsible

The parole listening to will likely be scrutinised by Justice Secretary Alex Chalk (pictured), who underneath new powers has the fitting to ask the Parole Board to rethink any choice to launch Steele

On the Previous Bailey, Ashiq denied making ready acts of terrorism. He has additionally pleaded not responsible to helping different folks to participate in terrorist acts.

Prosecutor Sarah Whitehouse QC stated stated it was not the primary time the defendant had tried to succeed in Syria.

In March 2014, he was stopped alongside together with his father at Birmingham Airport, however stated he was planning to go to Turkey and a few refugee camps on the border.

After the 2 fell out the defendant returned house on 20 Could, the trial heard.

Two months later he missed a flight as a result of he was speaking to police. He informed officers he was desiring to go to Corfu.

When he was arrested in November 2014, Ashiq, informed officers that any messages which recommended he supported ISIS had been merely to ‘wind folks up’

Giving proof, he claimed to have been kidnapped 5 occasions between July and November 2014 by ‘shadowy figures’ in balaclavas with London and American accents.

On the primary event he stated he ‘thought it was a joke’, till they demanded the names of leaders in Syria.

They confirmed my mum’s prescription, my fingerprints. They stated ‘We all know every little thing about you, there’s nothing you possibly can disguise from us’, Ashiq informed the courtroom.

On different events he stated he had been tortured.

‘They might put a towel in your face, pour water on you and also you get a drowning sensation,’ he stated. ‘I used to be choking up the water. I assumed I used to be going to die. Then afterwards, they do the identical factor once more however I took a gulp of air earlier than they did it and it was the identical questions repeatedly.

‘I simply stated, ‘Simply kill me now. I favor dying than torture’. This nation hates Muslims, the best way they tortured me.’

Requested by his lawyer Paul Hynes QC why he by no means talked about these abductions to the police, he stated he ‘did not belief them’ and feared seeming ‘like a mad man’.

Ashiq was described by Paul Hynes QC, defending, as a Walter Mitty character whose proof about being waterboarded displayed parts of a ‘fantastical story’.

However the jury took lower than two hours yesterday to search out him responsible on two counts of making ready terrorism acts on or earlier than November 6, 2014.

Choose Charles Huge QC stated regardless that the defendant was simply 19 on the time, he knew full effectively what ISIS was all about and had been intent on preventing for them.

He stated: ‘He can’t have disapproved. He went to battle for them. He’s extraordinarily skilful at downplaying his true dedication. He’s a fanatic, that is what he’s.’

Handing him an extra 4 years on prolonged licence, the decide stated to Ashiq: ‘You might be very, very decided and your attitudes are very deeply ingrained.

‘So I’m glad an extra interval of licence is required for the aim of defending the general public from critical hurt by you.’

The decide went on: ‘You weren’t a baby and any suggestion of naivety shouldn’t be overstated. You might be extremely smart and resourceful.

‘You sustained a excessive diploma of resolve over an prolonged interval albeit in a felony trigger, and that trigger was a trigger you selected and it could not be proper to see you as some sort of sufferer.’

Ashiq remained decided to battle for ISIS regardless of figuring out it was accountable for beheading hostages, together with British support employee Alan Henning, he stated.

The decide additionally highlighted his hostility in the direction of the UK – the nation of his delivery and that of his mother and father – and the disregard he had proven for authorities that attempted to assist him by means of the anti-radicalisation organisation Forestall.

MailOnline has taken the lead in highlighting the variety of convicted terrorists – most British born – who’ve been launched on the finish of their sentence, or after a parole listening to in the previous few years.

These embrace Khuram Iqbal, now 30, who as soon as known as himself the ‘father of terrorism’, who was rejected for launch by the Parole Board in October 2022, however was allowed to depart jail in December that 12 months.

Iqbal, from Cardiff, was jailed in 2014, then aged 21, for 3 years and three months for disseminating terrorist publications and possessing terrorist info.

He was given a set determinate sentence and launched on the finish of his sentence.