Pharmacist 'showed child beheading video and said Isis were not bad people'

A Leicester man attempted to "indoctrinate" two boys by showing them beheading videos on his phone, a court heard. The man also told the school-age children that members of Isis were not "bad people".

Zameer Ghumra, a 38-year-old pharmacist, allegedly taught the children how to "survive a bomb attack" and fight with knives, the BBC reported. He is accused of disseminating "terrorist propaganda" in the form of a graphic Twitter video on his mobile phone from January 2013 to September 2014.

Ghumra denies committing a terrorist offence, with the Nottingham Crown Court jury being told he said the boys were put up to make "a false allegation".

Prosecutor Simon Davis told the court that Ghumra, who was allegedly setting up an Islamic religious school, tried to "radicalise" and "indoctrinate" the boys.

Ghumra allegedly told the boys they could not have non-Muslim friends.

"He showed them Islamic State training videos, that included how to behead somebody," Davis told the jury.

According to the prosecutor, when one of the children asked him how anyone could do something so "disgusting," Ghumra reportedly replied: "If you truly believe in Allah, you can do it." Davis then claimed Ghumra told the boys: "I want you to persuade others to join Isis if you're going to stay in the UK."

Ghumra also defended members of the terrorist organisation, telling a pharmacy customer that Isis are "not bad people - they're only defending themselves".

According to the Leicester Mercury, the jury heard that Ghumra was friends with Isis supporters on Twitter and Facebook and regularly spoke to them online.

He allegedly had online conversations with Anjem Choudary, the hate preacher convicted of urging Muslims to support Isis, the Mirror reported. Ghumra reportedly described Choudary as "a good man" to the boys.

The alleged incidents emerged when one of the young brothers told his mother and a mentor at his primary school what Ghumra was telling him.

The jury was told that following his arrest in September 2015, a computer seized by police showed 1,600 search results for terms including "survival knives" and "bush-craft," the BBC reported. Neither the phone containing the beheading video nor the video were found, the prosecution noted.

"Either the defendant was talking about doing this or a young boy has made a very lucky guess about what was on the defendant's computer," Davis said. "The boys could not have known about this unless this all actually happened."

The BBC reported that the trial is due to last seven days and is expected to hear from the two boys.