An aerospace engineering student appeared at the Old Bailey on Friday accused of terrorism offences.
Norman Idris Faridi, 31, was accused of three counts of having material which could be useful in terrorism.
Faridi, of Pen-y-Wain, Cathays, Cardiff, appeared by video-link and was remanded in custody.
A provisional trial date was fixed for December 3, either at the same court or in Cardiff.
The married father of a new baby is a Kenyan national studying at university in Britain.
Source:huffingtonpost.co.uk
Terror offence 2012 would-be volunteer Norman Faridi jailed
An engineering graduate who applied to work as an Olympics volunteer at Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium has been jailed for a terror offence.
Norman Idris Faridi was turned down and later found to have a “terrorist’s manual” on his external hard drive.
Faridi, 32, of Cathays, Cardiff, was found guilty of possessing information likely to be useful to a terrorist.
The judge at the Old Bailey ordered that Kenyan Faridi should be deported after serving his nine-month sentence.
Sentencing him at the Old Bailey, Judge Gerald Gordon said: “Nothing I can see suggests that the item had been stored in some special way or special file.
“Nor is there in fact anything to suggest that you or anyone else had actually made use of it during the time it was in your possession.
“On the other hand, Parliament has determined that such is the need to protect the public from acts of terrorism that possessing material that may help those contemplating terrorism should be against the law and it should be punished in particular to deter others.”
Faridi had wanted to work as a volunteer in Cardiff where several football matches were held during last summer’s Olympics.
It was later discovered that he had a “terrorist’s manual”, 39 Ways To Serve And Proceed In Jihad, on his external hard drive and in a deleted file.
He was also found to have downloaded a video of extremist preacher Abu Hamza on to his mobile phone.
‘Completely disagree’
The former Glamorgan University aeronautics engineering student, who graduated in 2010, stayed on in Britain with his wife after renewing his visa.
He was employed at a bakery when police raided his home and confiscated his computer in April last year.
This followed him being questioned returning to the UK at Heathrow in December 2011 and his deleting a number of files when he got home.
He was arrested in July last year when 39,000 deleted files were examined.
He told police he was born into a Muslim sect but was interested in converting to being a Sunni Muslim.
Faridi told the trial he had downloaded various material from the internet but had not had time to sort it out.
He said: “I completely disagree with this document. It is nothing to do with my beliefs.”
He was found guilty of possessing records likely to be useful to someone preparing or committing an act of terrorism.
A similar charge involving having an al-Qaeda’s magazine was ordered to lie on file after the jury could not reach a verdict.
Faridi was cleared of a third charge of having a guide to fighting techniques for a similar purpose.
Source-https://www.bbc.com/
