Submitted by: Donald Hank
'Only Allah can judge me': Muslim convert Richard Dart refuses to stand in dock as he is sentenced to six years in prison for terrorism offences
- Dart and two other British Islamic extremists jailed at the Old Bailey
- Ex-PCSO Jahangir Alom and Imran Mahmood given four and nine years
- They all admitted engaging in conduct in preparation of terrorism
- Dart and Alom travelled to Pakistan to get terrorist training
- Conversations reveal targets were Wootton Bassett and secret services
- Judge brands them 'committed fundamentalists' who would have been prepared to kill
- Dart's extremist beliefs were revealed in a BBC documentary in 2011
Three London-based Islamic extremists, including a white Muslim convert and a former police community support officer, have been jailed for terrorism offences today.
Richard Dart, the son of teachers from Dorset, and his co-conspirators, Jahangir Alom and Imran Mahmood, were sentenced at the Old Bailey for engaging in conduct in preparation of acts of terrorism.
They admitted the offence between July 2010 and July last year at a previous hearing last month.
Dart was jailed for six years, Alom for four years and six months and Mahmood for nine years and nine months.
Mr Justice Simon told the trio they held 'radical Islamist beliefs and have shown yourselves to be committed to acts of terrorism'.
Mahmood and Dart were both given extended sentences, meaning that they will serve two-thirds of their prison terms rather than half, and they will spend five years on licence.
The judge said that they were all 'committed fundamentalists' who would have been prepared to kill.
He told Dart and Mahmood: 'I'm satisfied to the required criminal standard that neither of you had ruled out an attack in the United Kingdom, and that you, Mahmood, were looking at arming yourself with a bomb.'
Dart and Alom travelled to Pakistan to try to get terrorist training, and took advice from Mahmood who had already visited the country.
Former BBC security guard Dart also discussed bomb making with Mahmood, and military repatriation town Wootton Bassett as a potential target.
Police discovered fragments of text on Dart's laptop that revealed that the pair had used the computer to have a 'silent conversation' to avoid possible surveillance bugs.
They would open a Word document and take it in turns to type, before deleting the text and mistakenly assuming that none of it would be stored on the machine.
However forensic experts were able to plough through 2,000 pages of computer code to decipher fragments of what was said.
These included Mahmood making a reference to Wootton Bassett and then adding 'if it comes down to it it's that or even just to deal with a few MI5 MI6 heads'.
Counter-terrorism teams also believe that the pair used the same tactic walking down the street with a mobile phone.
Dart and Mahmood were both born in the UK, while Alom was born in Bangladesh but is a British citizen.
A pre-sentence report concluded that the trio are all dangerous offenders.
Dart, 30, of Broadway, Ealing, west London; Mahmood, 22, from Dabbs Hill Lane, Northolt, west London, and Alom, 26, of Abbey Road, Stratford, east London had all been stopped at airports while travelling to and from Pakistan.
When Mahmood was stopped at Manchester in 2010, traces of explosives were found on two rucksacks that he had with him.
He later admitted that he had received rudimentary training in explosives while in Pakistan.
Dart, who changed his name to Salahuddin al-Britani, became involved in extremism after moving from his home town Weymouth to east London and fraternising with radical preacher Anjem Choudary.
His beliefs were brought into the spotlight as part of a television documentary My Brother The Islamist, by his stepbrother Robb Leech.
Alom joined the Territorial Army in 2006 as part of the G Company 7th Battalion the Rifles, but did not complete his training due to medical reasons.
The following year he became a PCSO but left the job in September 2009.
Mr Justice Simon said that he and Dart were 'the object of suspicion' for their fellow radicals, and may have felt the need to prove themselves.
Alom had his own contact with a fourth man, Mohammed Tariq Nasar, a Briton now living in Pakistan, to try to get terrorist training, it is claimed. Mr Nasar has not been charged with any offence.
The trio were arrested on July 5 last year just before the start of the Olympics, and were charged on July 18.
Mark Topping, specialist counter-terrorism lawyer for the Crown Prosecution Service, said: 'This case serves as another reminder that those who take steps to travel abroad for the purposes of preparing for terrorism can and will be prosecuted here in the UK.
'Although the men did not identify any specific targets for an attack, their determination and intent were very clear.
'Mahmood had already undertaken training and was already asking Dart for help in locating a book that would allow him to make home-made explosives.
'This was a prosecution that was based on the most high-tech and sophisticated evidence gathering available.
'These state-of-the-art techniques not only left the defendants little choice but to plead guilty but also increasingly restrict the ability of terrorists to hide their intentions from the authorities.'
'I support the cause of jihad, that's part of being a Muslim': How Richard Dart's extremist views were revealed in BBC film
Complained Britain was becoming 'more homosexual': Richard Dart declared that he backed sharia law to eradicate evil in UK society in a 2011 documentary on BBC Three made by his brother
Richard Dart's extremist beliefs were laid bare in a television documentary made by his step-brother.
The film, called My Brother the Islamist, was broadcast on BBC Three in 2011 and featured Dart having close contact with hate preacher Anjem Choudary and declaring that he backed sharia law to eradicate evil in UK society.
Bearded Dart, who had only been a Muslim for six months at that point, said: 'I support the cause of jihad, that's part of being a Muslim.'
His step-brother, filmmaker Robb Leech, had not seen him for three years before making the documentary, which he said was part of his attempts to understand why Dart had embraced murderous extremism.
The 30-year-old moved from their home town Weymouth in Dorset to east London, where he spent his time attending extremist Islamic lectures, preaching on the streets and taking part in controversial demonstrations.
One gathering was held outside the US embassy in London on the anniversary of 9/11 and saw Choudary's supporters burning an American flag.
Dart said he wished he could have been the one to start the fire.
In the broadcast he is also seen walking around Weymouth complaining that British culture was becoming 'more homosexual' with 'men dressing like women'.
He also bemoans the fact that people are walking around 'half naked'.
Back in London, he is seen telling another white Muslim who has just come to Britain that there are 'many misconceptions' about Al Qaeda.
Dart says: 'The worst of the Muslims is better than the best of the kuffar (non-believers), that's a fact.
"That's why the kuffar will be in hell fire for eternity.'
"That's why the kuffar will be in hell fire for eternity.'
As he hands out Islamic leaflets to passers-by in east London he even approaches a Police Community Support Officer and makes an apparent reference to his co-conspirator Alom.
Alom was a PCSO and had also previously been in the Territorial Army before he rejected mainstream society.
Dart says: 'There is one brother that I'm very close with, he used to be in the police but he left it.'
The son of two teachers, the former BBC security guard came under the influence of extremist preacher Choudary, former head of two now-banned organisations Al-Muhajiroun and Islam4UK.
Choudary was master of ceremonies at Dart's official conversion to Islam, a film of which was posted on YouTube, and the pair were together for Dart's first televised interview.
The documentary finishes with Dart travelling to Mecca to go on pilgrimage, talking about a demonstration called British Soldiers Can Burn In Hell, planned while he was away.
It remains unclear exactly how his new-found religious beliefs spiralled into hate-filled extremism.
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