Muslim extremist who plotted to behead a poppy seller on Remembrance Day is jailed for life as it emerges he had links to British ISIS fighter dubbed the 'supermarket jihadi'

A Muslim extremist who plotted a knife attack on a poppy seller on Remembrance Day was in touch with an ISIS member in Syria, it can be disclosed.

Nadir Syed was jailed for life today after he was found guilty of preparing acts of terrorism in an attack he hoped would out-do the brutality of Lee Rigby's murder.

The 23-year-old will serve a minimum sentence of 15 years before he is eligible for parole.

Detectives believe Syed, of Hounslow, West London, planned to sever the head of his victim and hold it up for the camera.

 

 

They feared Syed was just three days from launching his attack, aimed at a poppy seller on Remembrance Day or possibly a Police Special Constable (PCSO)

It can be reported today that he was in regular contact with two friends who had joined the terrorist group and had been encouraging others to launch terrorist attacks.

Syed is said to have admired ISIS executioner Jihadi John and secured his phone with the passcode 77911 in tribute to the 7/7 and 9/11 terrorist attacks.

 

 

 

He was obsessed with the killing of Fusilier Rigby in Woolwich in 2013 and had an 'unnatural fascination with beheading by the use of knives,' Max Hill QC, prosecuting, said.

It can now be disclosed that Syed was close Omar Hussain, a former security guard at Morrisons supermarket in High Wycombe, who is now in Syria encouraging attacks on Western targets.

The jury in his trial was also not aware that a second friend of Syed's, Luqman Warsame, was killed in a Western air attack during fighting at the town of Kobane in Syria.

 

Sentencing Syed, Mr Justice Saunders said he was in 'no doubt' that he was dangerous and added: 'In my judgment if he was released from prison he would go and try and carry out what he failed to achieve in this case. He would set out to kill in furtherance of his beliefs.

'He is an intelligent man. He had thought out what he wanted to do and I saw no sign in the evidence he gave of any change of view on his part.

'On the evidence that I have at present the defendant will remain dangerous until the threat from Islamic terrorists has gone. I cannot say when that will be.

'It is clear to me that not only is a life sentence necessary, but it is essential, to protect the public from the threat that this defendant poses.'

 

 

Syed was encouraged by a fatwa released by ISIS, which called for 'lone wolf' attacks in the West.

He was increasingly obsessed by Remembrance Day and was filmed with his cousin, Yousaf, stamping on a poppy in the street and saying: 'Allahu Akbar [god is great]! May the poppy go to hell!'

One senior police source said: 'He had a hatred for the country he was brought up in, a hatred for soldiers and the police, and he despised the Remembrance Day parade and related activity.'

Two juries were unable to reach a verdict on Hamayoon, 29, a former culinary student who helped Syed pick out a knife, but said he knew nothing of the plot.

Syed's cousin, Yousaf, 20, from High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, was acquitted after a re-trial when a jury was told he was not at the kitchen shop.