Extremist video translator Muhammad Suleman jailed

A Manchester man who translated extreme Islamist videos and uploaded them to YouTube has been jailed for 33 months.

Muhammad Suleman, 25, admitted distributing or circulating a version of an al Qaida publication.

Jailing him at the Old Bailey, Judge Charles Wide QC rejected the suggestion that Suleman had approached the conflict in a" journalistic way".

Police found 430 documents containing extremist literature on a pen drive in a search of his home in December 2014.

Among the items seized during the search of the property in Peakdale Avenue, Crumpsall, were two laptops with software allowing access to the "dark web".

Officers later foiled an attempt by him to flee to Pakistan after the search and arrested him at Manchester Airport where his flight was delayed.

Some of the electronic documents included magazines detailing how to make homemade bombs and car bombs, training to become a jihadi fighter at home rather than "risking a dangerous travel abroad", information on sending and receiving of encrypted messages and methods.

Suleman admitted at an earlier hearing five counts of possessing documents likely to be of use to a person preparing or committing an act of terrorism and two counts of distributing a terrorist publication.

The judge accepted his guilty pleas to disseminating the propaganda on the basis that he had been reckless rather than encouraging terrorism.

Det Chief Supt Tony Mole from the North West Counter Terrorism Unit said it was clear Suleman was "a staunch supporter of Islamic extremism and whilst there is no evidence whatsoever to suggest he engaged in any attack planning, he went out of his way to distribute extremist materials and make them accessible to others."