Heathrow worker gave terrorist security details

9:48am Wednesday 9th January 2008

By Manisha Mistry

A BRITISH Muslim who emailed the "lyrical terrorist" while she was working at Heathrow Airport for advice about getting through security has been jailed for four-and-a-half years.

Sohail Qureshi, 30, yesterday became the first person to be convicted under new legislation targeting the preparation of terrorist acts.

Qureshi, who volunteered to fight for jihadist groups linked to Al Qaeda in Pakistan and Afghanistan, contacted Samina Malik, who worked for WH Smith at Heathrow and called herself the lyrical terrorist before a planned trip to Pakistan.

Malik, 23, of Townsend Road, Southall, was spared jail last year after being convicted of possessing material likely to be useful to terrorists.

Qureshi, who is from east London, was arrested at Heathrow on November 16, 2006, before boarding a flight to Islamabad, following a joint intelligence led operation by the Met's Counter Terrorism Command and the Security Services.

However he was carrying £9,000 in cash, a night-vision scope, two metal batons, two sleeping bags and two rucksacks as well as a collection of extremist material on CDs and his computer hard drive.

He pleaded guilty to preparing for the commission of terrorist acts, possession of articles for terrorist purposes and possession of articles likely to be useful to terrorists.

Prosecutor Jonathan Sharp said Qureshi's is the first conviction under section five of the Terrorism Act 2006.

Mr Sharp, said: "The initial subject of inquiry was Qureshi. He was planning to go to Pakistan and Afghanistan to take part in terrorist activities or to support the actions of others in that area.

"He made contact with Samina Malik in order to find out the state of security at Heathrow.

"In doing that he must have known she was in a position to assist him. He must have known she worked at Heathrow and he must have known that she was a sympathetic to the extremist cause."

In one email exchange Qureshi asked Malik, who worked airside serving passengers who had passed through security, for an update on security measures.

He wrote: "Sis, I hope u get this email before anyone else does. Wat is the situation like at work? Is the checking still very harsh? or have things cooled down a bit? Bara'Allah feek...Ws wr wb Delete after read!"

Malik replied and provided Qureshi with details of the latest security measures in place. She signed off with her pseudonym "Umm Musab al-Gharib", which translates as: "A Stranger Awaiting Martyrdom".

Following his arrest, police searched Qureshi's house in Palmerston Road, Forest Gate, and found material demonstrating his links to terrorism, including a number of photos of him with assault rifles.

Peter Clarke, assistant commissioner of specialist operations at the Met, said: "Qureshi is a trained and committed terrorist, who by his own admission had contacts within Al-Qaeda since the mid-1990s.

"He wanted to carry out terrorist acts overseas and gathered the equipment to help him do this.

"Although we do not know his exact plans, it is likely that coalition forces, possibly in Afghanistan, were his intended target. In his own words he hoped to "kill many".

Mr Clarke added: "He was no amateur. He had a cover story, he researched airport security, he tried to cover his tracks."

In December, she received a nine month prison sentence, suspended for 18 months, for one count of possessing an article useful to a person committing, or preparing an act of terrorism.