A chemistry teacher has pleaded guilty to two Syria-related terror offences. Jamshed Javeed, 30, of Levenshulme in Manchester, accepted he intended to travel to Syria to join rebels fighting against the government. Prosecutors say Javeed was arrested by counter-terrorism officers last December while preparing for a trip to Syria to join terror group Islamic State (IS).
His family had earlier tried to stop him by taking and hiding his passport but he obtained a replacement document. The teacher is said to have become rapidly radicalised from living an ordinary Western lifestyle to becoming someone determined to fight in the Middle East, having changed his appearance and behaviour from August 2013.
At the time of his arrest, Javeed said he felt the British government was not doing enough to help the situation in Syria and that his actions were “honourable”. In a basis of plea submitted by his lawyers, Javeed insisted he is not an extremist and “has never supported and does not support the aims of Isis as now revealed and understood”.
