A hairdresser was sentenced to 12 years in prison on Thursday (January 5th) for sending the Islamic State group in Syria thousands of pounds, taken from business aid paid during the Covid-19 epidemic.
“
May Allah destroy you;
we will meet again at the last judgment.
You are infidels and you will end up in hell
,” Tarek Namouz, 43, shouted at police officers in court after his sentencing.
This man, who was the owner of a hairdressing salon in west London, had received financial assistance from local authorities during the Covid epidemic.
But he sent this money to Syria between November 2020 and May 2021, until his arrest on May 25, 2021.
Read alsoWhere is the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq?
The police managed to trace money transfers totaling 11,280 pounds (12,750 euros).
Tarek Namouz, however, boasted to a friend during a prison visit that he had sent 25,000 pounds (28,250 euros) to a man he described as "
a former IS fighter
" who could buy sniper rifles for 2500 pounds (2825 euros).
“
I never sent that money
,” he said during the trial.
Tarek Namouz, on the other hand, said during the investigation that he had sent money to "
help the poor and people in need in Syria
".
He was also convicted of having videos on his mobile phone explaining how to make an explosive device and use knives to carry out solitary attacks.
Files downloaded from the Telegram app also contained IS propaganda.
Tarek Namouz had already been sentenced to ten years in prison for the rape of an 18-year-old young woman in 2014 in a pub in London which he owned.
He was released on parole in September 2019.
/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/prisa/AGFCBDDJJTOOUXDHZW55LU7HYE.jpg)
