British ex-supermarket worker ‘listed as an ISIS sniper in secret jihadi papers leaked to Sky News reporter’
Mohammed Abdallah, 26, travelled to Syria with help from his wheelchair-bound brother who set up a "hub" of communication at home in Manchester, the Old Bailey was told
A FORMER supermarket worker who joined ISIS in Syria was named as a 'sniper' after a terrorist defector leaked his details to Sky News, a court heard today.
Mohammed Abdallah, 26, travelled to Syria with help from his wheelchair-bound brother who set up a "hub" of communication at home in Manchester, the Old Bailey was told.
He allegedly went to the war-torn country intending to meet up with three fellow jihadis, including a former RAF serviceman turned Muslim convert Stephen Gray.
While three of them managed to cross into Syria in July 2014, Gray was turned away when he reached Turkey, jurors were told.
Abdallah, who has dual Libyan nationality, allegedly went on to receive £2,000 in cash, source an AK47 assault rifle, and sign up with ISIS, with the assistance of his 24-year-old brother Abdalraouf.
The younger sibling had been paralysed from the waist down when the brothers fought the Gadaffi regime in 2011, jurors have been told.
While there, the defendant allegedly got experience as a sniper and handling heavy Russian-made machine guns, according to ISIS documents leaked in 2016.
Prosecutor Mark Heywood QC told jurors how the ISIS file detailing his previous fighting knowledge fell into the hands of a Sky News journalist.
He said: "In March 2016, Stuart Ramsay, chief correspondent with Sky News travelled to Sanliurfa on Turkey's border with Syria, to meet with IS defectors facilitated by contacts in the Free Syrian Army.
"One, known only to Mr Ramsay as Abu Hamed, said that he had been a registrar or an assistant in the bureaucracy of IS in Syria."
He handed over a USB stick containing ISIS records which were passed on to Scotland Yard's counter terrorism officers, jurors heard.
One of the formal records, which had the ISIS flag in the top right-hand corner, was allegedly a file on the defendant.
In an entry entitled "any previous Jihadi experience" it stated he fought in Libya against Gadaffi.
He was listed as a "fighter" specialising in use of "Dushka" - a Russian heavy machine gun - and as a "sniper", the court was told.
Mr Heywood told jurors that Abdallah's nickname, date of birth, nationality and previous experience all matched.
The document was "very important", given the specific biographical detail it contained, he said.
"His specialisation, in other words how he might sell himself as useful to Islamic State, includes that he has experience of using a 'dushka'.
"This is a Russian made heavy machine gun.
"You will see that not only is it true that the defendant had then got that previous experience but that recorded images exist of his doing so together with his brother previously."
Mohammed Abdallah, of Westerling Way, Moss Side, Manchester, denies possessing a gun and receiving £2,000 for terrorism purposes as well as membership of ISIS.