Pharmacist jailed for showing beheading video to children

A pharmacist who described Isis fighters as "not bad people" has been jailed for six years for showing a beheading video to two primary school boys.

Zameer Ghumra, 38, was found guilty of disseminating terrorist propaganda in the form of a graphic Twitter video on his mobile phone following a trial at Nottingham Crown Court earlier this week. He was sentenced today (6 October).

Judge Dickinson QC said this was a "determined effort" to radicalise children and turn them into terrorists.

The young brothers told the court earlier that Ghumra, who ran a small madrassa for pupils of Islam, urged them to encourage other people to join Isis fighters in Syria.

The 38-year-old taught them how to survive a bomb attack and fight with knives, rewarding them with sweets to keep them onside, the jury heard. He also instructed them to only have Muslim friends.

The court heard that the children were told they would have to behead people when they arrived in Syria.

The jury was told how Ghumra had online conversations with Anjem Choudary, the jailed radical preacher, describing him as "a good man" to the children. Neither of the boys can be identified for legal reasons.

The first boy said in his evidence: "He had Isis training videos and people being beheaded. There was talking and then the American soldier was beheaded.

"It made me feel disgusting. He said if you truly love Allah then you do it. I told him I get a horrid feeling when I see this."

Brainwashed

The boy claimed he and his brother had been shown "a lot" of beheading videos by Ghumra.

The boy said: "He believes in a very, very, very extreme Islam. He believes if anyone's non-Muslim and they say anything bad about Islam you kill them."

His brother told the court how Ghumra had "brainwashed" him.

Another witness told the court that Ghurma banned him from the pharmacy where he worked as a manager in Oundle, Northants, after he had urged Ghurma to have a poppy tin on display.

Ghumra was arrested on 2 November 2015, at Birmingham Airport, as he tried to fly to Istanbul, Turkey.

Prosecutors said the offences took place between January 2013 and September 2014, but Ghurma had denied the charges.

Speaking after the trial, Sue Hemming of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said: "Zameer Ghumra tried to brainwash impressionable children with this violent ideology by making one watch beheading videos and urging them both to adopt a hard-line religious outlook.

"The CPS case was that he intended to radicalise them in the hope that they would go on to be involved in terrorism.

"The children were brave to give evidence and we would like to thank them for helping to secure this conviction of a dangerous man."