British home-grown Isil-inspired terrorists jailed for life over plot to kill soldiers and police officers

Drive by terror plot
Tarik Hassane, left, and Suhaib Majeed

A pair of home-grown terrorists has been jailed for life after plotting to kill soldiers, police officers and civilians in a series of Islamic State-inspired drive-by shootings.


His old school friend Hassane - nicknamed The Surgeon - was studying medicine in Sudan at the time, but rushed back to London to carry on as a "lone wolf terrorist" before he too was picked up.

He is understood to have known Mohammed Emwazi, the Londoner unmasked as Isil executioner Jihadi John, and may have met up with him in Syria in 2013 before later plotting his attack.

Hassane and Majeed also came from the same part of west London as Emwazi and had links to the same mosque associated with him.



Sentencing them on Friday, Judge Mr Justice Wilkie said Hassane must serve a minimum of 21 years before being considered for release and Majeed has a minimum tariff of 20 years.

He told them: "It is shocking, tragic and deplorable that you, two young British men educated through the school system, undertaking university courses, should be so influenced by the bloodthirsty version of Islam promoted through Isis and similar groups that you acted to take up arms against your fellow British citizens and those charged with protecting them in your own city,' the judge told them."

Two other defendants, Nyall Hamlett, 25, and Nathan Cuffy, 26, were acquitted of being part of the terror plot but sentenced for firearms offences.

Cuffy was jailed for 11 years and Hamlet for six and a half years.

Metropolitan Police Commander Dean Haydon said the terror plot was a "step up" in terms of complexity and the use of guns, which was a "real concern" for police.

Tarik Hassane (top) and Suhaib Majeed (third left) Credit: Facebook

Prosecutor Brian Altman QC had said Hassane and Majeed were heavily influenced by the rise of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil), which pronounced a caliphate in June 2014.

Within days, Hassane pledged his allegiance to Isil and encouraged his friends to follow suit. He was pictured posing with a gun in one hand and a book on Osama bin Laden in the other.

His close friend Majeed was studying at the prestigious King's College London and was chairman of its Islamic society.

The court heard that Majeed sent a picture of a dead fighter "laughing" to a Telegram chat group named Turnup Terror Squad, of which Hassane was also a member.

And he had a "grim" video of Jihadi John beheading a journalist on his iPad, jurors were told.

Majeed was an "essential cog" in the conspiracy, having set up a laptop to exchange encrypted messages with Hassane in Khartoum.

In them, Hassane repeatedly urged him to get the "P", "Z" and "C" together to set his deadly plan in motion.

The prosecution said P was code for money, Z was for a "zoom zoom" or moped and C was for "Creps" - their secret language for firearms, which were also referred to as types of trainers.

Mohammed Emwazi, also known as Jihadi John  Credit: PA

In September, they received "direct" encouragement when the IS official spokesman issued a fatwa to kill disbelievers in the West in a speech on YouTube.

Later the same month, Cuffy supplied a self-loading Baikal pistol with silencer and bullets to fellow Muslim convert and former Catholic altar boy Hamlett, who passed it on to Majeed.

It was one of five guns the "street criminal" had stashed at his home in sports bags which he claimed he was holding for three joint owners.

When armed police raided Majeed's home, the student was spotted tossing the gun and ammunition out of his bedroom window.

In his defence, Majeed said he wanted to give the gun to Hassane, who had offered to frighten an associate called Fatboy into handing over cash owed him from a PayPal fraud they were involved in.

Hamlett knew Majeed and Hassane through the Al Manaar Muslim Cultural Heritage Centre in Ladbroke Grove, west London, where he used to work as a cook.

But he denied knowing what he had been asked to deliver to Majeed until the last minute. Cuffy also said he had no idea about the plot.

Cuffy, who worked at The Money Shop, had already pleaded guilty to possession of firearms with intent to endanger life relating to a small armoury of assorted guns at his home.

Majeed admitted having the Baikal self-loading pistol, silencer and ammunition but denied intent to endanger life. However, the jury convicted him of the more serious charge.