Woman, 21, jailed after exchanging secret messages with pro-IS extremist
A female Muslim extremist who was infatuated with an American extremist has been jailed after exchanging over 25,000 secret messages with him and uploading documents glorifying the 9/11 attack on his website.
Roma Iqbal “sought attention and affirmation” from the terrorist, after she lost her job at Debenhams and her boyfriend dumped her.
Iqbal was just 21 when she started messaging Benjamin Carpenter, known as Abu Hamza, and developed her own strong beliefs.
Pro-Islamic state extremist Hamza is currently on remand in an American jail awaiting trial on terrorism charges, and has been accused of leading one of the most influential English-language publications promoting IS propaganda.
After admitting two counts of disseminating terrorist material, Iqbal was sentenced yesterday to four and a half years in prison at Winchester Crown Court, Hants.
Prosecuting, Serena Gates said: “The defendant is a follower of the Salafi movement but has an extremist mindset.
“She was arrested on Dec 20, 2021 and devices seized from her home.”
The court heard examination of her devices showed accounts on Telegram, TikTok and WhatsApp which showed she was demonstrating an “extremist mindset”.
“She regularly discussed condemnation for groups like Al Qaeda and the Taliban but made comments that can be inferred as support for IS,” Ms Gates added.
Iqbal’s devices showed she was “key” in the re-establishment of the People of Tawhid
website - previously owned and funded by Hamza.
It is not the same Abu Hamza, notorious former imam of Finsbury Park Mosque, who is currently serving a life sentence in a maximum security prison, ADX Florence, in Colorado.
The court heard the “bright and articulate” woman was in “direct and indirect” contact with Hamza - the full extent of which was later uncovered by the FBI.
Between October 2020 and March 2021, a “lengthy” Telegram exchange of over 25,000 messages was found between the pair.
In messages, she told Hamza she liked to “take risks” and would “convert the sisters on the inside and work our way outwards” if she was imprisoned.
Ms Gates said Iqbal, who was living with her brother and parents in the Blackbird Leys area of Oxford, was “pulling the strings” but “keeping her hands rather clean” in the launch of his website as she was “alive to the risk” of restarting the site.
Nonetheless, she was found to have paid the $120 necessary to publish it and in December 2021 sent 10 documents to another user to upload to the website, of which two are terrorist publications.
Iqbal also sent a document entitled “Signs of Ar-Rahman in the Raid of September” to a user who uploaded it to the freshly launched website.
‘Glorification of 9/11 attacks’
The court heard the document includes phrases which can “clearly be considered to be glorification of 9/11 attacks”. The document sets out five aspects that describe the “greatness of this event”.
In the second document, Ruling on Fighting the Americans outside of Iraq, Americans are referred to as “the greatest enemy of Islam and the Muslims”.
In mitigation, her barrister Hossein Zahir KC told the court Iqbal was an “immature” 21 year old at the time and had “sought attention and affirmation” after her boyfriend split up from her.
Sentencing Iqbal, Judge Jane Miller KC said she had developed an extremist mindset as a result of her want for attention, having been part of a “dysfunctional” family.
Iqbal was jailed for four and half years.
She will be placed on a five year serious crime prevention order upon her release.
