A former school dinner lady has been sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of 17 years after planning to travel to Afghanistan to become a martyr for the so-called Islamic State.
Farishta Jami, 36, pledged allegiance to IS and saved £1,200 to pay for a one-way flight to Afghanistan, Leicester Crown Court heard.
Jami, from Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire, was convicted by a jury in February of two counts of engaging in conduct in preparation for terrorism under Section 5 of the Terrorism Act 2006.
Following her conviction, she was reportedly "distressed" by the release of a custody image showing her face. Subsequently, a second photo, in which she was wearing a niqab, was released by police.
Detectives searched her address in November 2023 and seized several devices and at least 20 different sim cards, which Counter Terrorism Police say were hidden in a bag stuffed down the side of her bed, the court was told.
She also shared graphic and violent extremist material between September 2022 and January 2024 on social media platforms by posting videos, including ones involving children engaging in terrorist activity, documents and images as well as participating in group chats, joining a large number of pro-IS groups and channels.
Judge Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb told the court Jami, who moved to England from Afghanistan in 2008, had also obtained and shared instructions on explosive devices, how to handle firearms such as Kalashnikov rifles, how to create a grenade detonator and lessons on creating chemical explosives.
The court heard she was administrator on several of the groups, some of which had hundreds of members, had praised Jihad and promoted the idea of martyrdom – as well as translating official IS propaganda and teaching others how to distribute it.
Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb said by their verdicts, the jury had been sure that Jami had “reached the point of intending to join Isis physically in Afghanistan intending to commit a terrorist act involving your own martyrdom, such as a suicide bombing”.
She had “actively pursued” relocating to Afghanistan to join the terrorist group and searched flights in October 2023, telling an acquaintance that month that she was “restless” to go, was “100% confident” that she would travel the next month and discussed handing over her groups.
The judge said: “You were clearly not expecting to live long in Afghanistan, you even asked if you needed to bring much in the way of clothing.”
Despite the defendant denying to police that her professions of loyalty to IS were genuine, Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb said Jami had an “entrenched extremist mindset” and was “sophisticated, confident and persistent”.
She told the defendant that from listening to her giving evidence during her four-week trial that she believed Jami had a higher-than-average intelligence and said there was nothing to suggest she was on a “path to deradicalisation”.
The judge said: “There is no cogent evidence that you have turned away from an entrenched Islamist extremist mindset.”
She added: “The evidence indicates that your intention to commit acts of terrorism was not transitory or fleeting, but one that you had settled on during a period of months as you set about consolidating your role in promulgating ISIS ideology.”
While her plan was “viable” and she had obtained approval from IS for her to join, Jami had not yet purchased visas or plane tickets and her plan had been thwarted by officers who arrested her in January last year.
The judge said that while Jami had been of previously good character, was on medication for depression and had felt “isolated” when she was rehoused in an area without a Muslim community, this did not excuse her “simply wicked” plans.
She said: “You adopted the Isis philosophy of hatred and violence. It is a great shame that even now I cannot find that you are less than committed to the cause.”
Jami was handed concurrent sentences of life imprisonment with a minimum term of 17 years for each of the two offences.
