Man jailed over terror rocket blueprints
Yassin Nassari has been jailed for three-and-a-half years
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Tuesday, 17, Jul 2007 04:26
A 28-year-old man has been jailed under the Terrorism Act after being convicted of possessing terror training manuals and instructions on how to make missiles and rockets.
Yassin Nassari, from Ealing, west London, was today sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison after being found guilty of being in possession of information useful for the committing or preparing an act of terrorism.
The Arabic language scholar first came to the attention of anti-terror police last May after he was stopped at Luton airport after flying from Syria via Amsterdam with his Dutch wife Bouchra El Hor and their young baby.
An investigation – codenamed Operation Bivalve – was launched after the offending items were found in his possession, while a search of his house in west London unearthed an external computer hard drive containing dozens of saved files on martyrdom, weapons training and how to make Qassam artillery rockets.
Police said that a "viable rocket" could have been manufactured from Nassari's blueprints, while violent videos of terrorist attacks and beheadings were also discovered on his PC.
Passing sentence at the Old Bailey today, Judge Gerald Gordon told Nassari – who had denied the charges against him – that he had succumbed to "fundamentalist trash".
Ms El Hor meanwhile was cleared of failing to disclose information about terrorism.
Commenting on the successful conclusion of Operation Bivalve, Metropolitan deputy assistant commissioner Peter Clarke – the UK's senior counterterrorism police officer – revealed that one of Nassari's contacts on extremist chatrooms was one of three men convicted for using the internet to incite murder last month.
"Nassari held the ideology, ability and determination to find and download material which would have been useful to terrorists," Mr Clarke explained.
"He communicated with other likeminded people and shared their interest in gruesome extremist material. He conducted research into how to construct and deploy weaponry commonly used by terrorists in the Middle East.
"What he intended to do upon his return to the UK is unclear. However, it is possible that his research could have ended up in the hands of individuals or groups willing to put it into practice."