- Angela Shafiq, 22, advised Mohammed Nahin Ahmed on how to get to Syria
- Shafiq told him to pretend to be a medic during their online romance
- London student suffered self-esteem issues and feared being single
- Jihadis Ahmed and friend Yusuf Zubair Sarwar were jailed after Syria trip
- Pair were turned in by family after spending eight months in Aleppo
A wannabe jihadi bride who was desperate for love has been jailed for 15 months today for helping an extremist travel to Syria after an online romance.
Angela Shafiq, 22, advised Mohammed Nahin Ahmed, from Birmingham, about travel documents and how to get past border controls before he left Britain to join rebels in the war-torn country.
The student, who admitted she was worried nobody would marry her, also encouraged him to take a first aid course so he could pretend he was heading to Syria for humanitarian reasons.
Shafiq denied an offence of preparation of terrorist acts after claiming her Skype chats with Ahmed - a man she never met - were all 'fantasy'.
But the jury at the Old Bailey found the student from Hounslow, in Middlesex, guilty in less than a day.
Sentencing her Judge Stephen Kramer QC said: 'You are an intelligent young woman who I am satisfied was not as naive and unworldly as you portrayed yourself to be in evidence during the trial.
'I am satisfied that you knew full well what you were saying and doing.'
He added: 'What you did was sustained over months, deliberate and intense.'
The judge also said that Shafiq had expressed 'fervent' support for what Ahmed was travelling to Syria to do.
In May 2013, Ahmed and his friend Yusuf Sarwar travelled from the UK to Syria, via Turkey, in order to join the ranks of Islamist rebels fighting the Assad regime.
The pair were arrested on their return in January last year and later pleaded guilty to an offence of preparation of terrorist acts, the court heard.
After eight months in Aleppo they tried to get back to the UK but police were waiting after Sarwar's mother turned them in.
Officers found pictures of them holding guns in their suitcases and the pair bought Islam for Dummies, The Koran for dummies and Arabic for Dummies from Amazon ahead of their Syria trip.
After Shafiq's role emerged she was arrested and denied the same charge.
In mitigation, Richard Thomas told the court Shafiq battled with self-esteem issues and had concerns about her weight, excess hair and acne.
Reading from medical records, he said: 'There are references throughout to her self esteem, her has excess hair and acne.
'There are a number of references to self esteem and a number of references to stress-related anxiety and agoraphobia.'
Mr Thomas had submitted that Shafiq should be given a suspended sentence for her 'relatively low level terrorism offending', but the judge ruled that only an immediate custodial sentence was suitable.
In the five months before Ahmed left, he had numerous Skype exchanges with Shafiq under the user name Neon Salam.
Trial prosecutor Christopher Hehir QC told the jury: 'Although as I have said the two of them never met, the conversations between Angela Shafiq and Nahin Ahmed were quite intense at times.
'They discussed the possibility of marriage, and of Angela Shafiq herself travelling to Syria.
'A continuing issue in the conversations was the fact that Angela Shafiq's mother, quite understandably you may think, would not allow her to go to Syria.'
In January 2013, Ahmed told her he wanted to be a 'mujahid' or warrior and Shafiq replied that she prayed 'Allah gives you the pleasure of being shaheed (martyr)'.
The following day, she expressed a wish he would come back for her so they could go to Syria together and he responded: 'Lol I'll prbly be deaddddd I cant cme bk ill get arrested Guaranteed Dats y. I talked to a Swedish brudaa who went syriaa. He said da battles get addictive (sic).'
When she spoke of going to Birmingham to see him, Ahmed put her off. He went on to tell her of his plan to go to Syria via Turkey with a friend who he said he was training because he was 'a bit chubby' - in reference to Sarwar.
Shafiq was accused of helping Ahmed by giving him advice on renewing his passport and suggesting he do a first aid course - 'like in case u get stopped at borders u can show that certificate nd say ur going there to help the ppl.'
The chats tailed off in February 2013 after Ahmed told Shafiq he had received a message from an alternative jihadi bride who wanted to go to Syria.
Three months later, Ahmed tried to contact her as he was about to fly to Turkey, saying he had phoned her twice from his hotel in Heathrow but got no answer.
The next day, she sent him a lengthy reply begging his forgiveness, saying that she was 'crying a lot' and 'didn't want my emotions to hit you'.
In her defence, Shafiq told jurors that she did not believe Ahmed when he told her about his plan to go to Syria, saying that he used LOL - text speak for laughing out loud - a lot in his messages which made her question whether he was serious.
She said she had no idea when he asked her for a donation for his 'AK' that meant an AK47 rifle and she thought he talked about being a soldier as a slang term to sound 'hard'.
On their talk about marriage, she said: 'I liked the topic of marriage. I wanted to fantasise about someone wanting me. I didn't feel like in real life anyone wanted to marry me.'
Senior detectives believe Angela Shafiq may have gone on to give support to extremists planning attacks in the UK if she had not been arrested.
Although the Skype user claimed her exchanges with Mohammed Nahin Ahmed were part of an innocent on-line romance, officers cite the advice she offered him as clear evidence of her backing for his cause.
Commenting after the sentencing, the head of the West Midlands Counter Terrorism Unit Sue Southern said of Shafiq: 'She talked to him about how proud she was that he was someone willing to act and not just talk about going to Syria.
'Angela Shafiq could have gone on to radicalise other young men. She could have played a significant part in encouraging them to travel or even commit attacks here in the UK.'
Ms Southern also urged anyone with concerns about a loved one being radicalised on-line to contact the authorities.
'In this particular case, Angela Shafiq's mum was aware of the relationship but she did not approve of it.
'If she had come forward to the authorities much sooner, we may have been able to intervene at a point before she crossed that line into criminality.'
British terrorist at centre of online romance ordered books Islam For Dummies from Amazon before fleeing to Syria with best friend
Angela Shafiq's online love Mohammed Nahin Ahmed fled to Syria with childhood friend Yusuf Zubair Sarwar but they were caught after Sarwar's mother turned them in.
During their court case last year a judge praised the 'brave' mother who told the police her son had gone to Syria 'to do jihad' as he jailed two childhood friends for more than 12 years for joining an Al-Qaeda linked group.
After eight months fighting in Syria they were arrested on their return to Heathrow Airport in January after their relatives tipped off counter-terrorism detectives.
Woolwich Crown Court heard the pair ordered books Islam For Dummies, The Koran For Dummies and Arabic For Dummies from Amazon ahead of their trip.
Ahmed also told his childhood friend Sarwar: 'I cannot tell anyone I'm going to do jihad. Lol. I'll get arrested' just before they left Birmingham and joined rebels in Aleppo.
Sarwar had also left a note for his mother arguing going 'to do jihad' in Syria was 'doing the best deed in Allah's eyes' and said the Taliban and Al Qaeda 'are not bad', so she went to the police.
After returning to Britain they told officers they had been doing humanitarian work but a camera containing 'thousands' of images, including some of them posing with guns on the front line, was found in their luggage.
Sarwar's family reported him missing to police in May last year after they found a hand-written letter from him in which said he had left to join a terrorist group called Kataib al Muhajireen (KaM) - later renamed Kateeba al-Kawthar - 'to do jihad'.
Officers also found social media and email conversations between the pair and Islamic extremists.
Over Skype, Ahmed talked to a Swedish national who was fighting with KaM.
He told the fighter: 'I come to join KaM,' to which the Swede replies: 'Inshallah (God willing)'.
Ahmed later asked a Danish Islamic extremist: 'Would the brothers in Yemen accept me?'
At Woolwich Crown Court in south-east London today they each admitted one count of engaging in conduct in preparation of terrorism acts contrary to Section 5 of the Terrorism Act.
The families of both men had put pressure on them to return to the UK once they discovered where they were.
Days earlier he had told his family he was travelling to Turkey as part of a two-week trip organised by Birmingham City University, where he was a part-time computer science student.
It prompted a search of the men's homes, which revealed an online conversation between Ahmed and a Swedish national fighting with the KaM, during which Ahmed said he wanted to join the terrorist group.
West Midlands Police said the men showed the mind-set to go and join the jihad in Syria, before carrying out research, buying equipment, and finally travelling their via Turkey.
Ahmed, who was born in Bangladesh, moved to Britain as a child, while Sarwar, who is of Pakistani descent, was born in Britain.
He handed both men a jail term of 12 years and 8 months, to be followed by five years on extended license. They will be also be subject to counter-terror notification requirements for 30 years.
The court heard the men fled to Syria claiming it was a university trip elsewhere but after returning to Britain they told officers they had been doing humanitarian work but a camera containing 'thousands' of images, including some of them posing with guns on the front line, was found in their luggage.
Traces of 'military-grade explosives', including TNT and nitro-glycerine were on the men's clothes and trainers.
An initial search of their homes revealed images of Islamic propaganda on both of their computers, including images of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isis) flags, shaheed (martyr) literature and several texts which are linked to the jihadi mindset.
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