Syria,By Lucy Crossley-03 February 2015:-A radical Muslim student who wanted the black flag of the Islamic State to fly over Downing Street has been jailed for three and a half years.
David Souaan, 20, was found guilty of planning to join rebel forces in war-torn Syria following a trial at the Old Bailey in December.
The prosecution said he had visited Syria in December 2013 and was on his way back to fight the jihadist cause when he was arrested at Heathrow Airport on May 31 last year.
The Birkbeck College student, who comes from a wealthy family in Serbia, denied the charge and insisted his earlier visit to Syria was to collect his grandfather's belongings.
But the jury took nine hours to find him guilty of the terror charge and he was jailed by judge Peter Rook today.
Sentencing him to be detained in a young offenders institution, Judge Rook told Souaan his case was at the lower end of the scale but nevertheless serious.
He told the student that due to his age and immaturity he had been 'vulnerable to extremist views' to which he was exposed after he left home for London.
He added that his praise for Islamic State came at a time before the organisation's true character was known.
'The jury rejected your evidence that you wished to go to Syria to assist with humanitarian aid,' he said.
'The prosecution is unable to say which terrorist group you were to fight for save it was against President Assad.
'It follows that fighting against the forces of Assad comes under the definition of terrorism, as does fighting for ISIS or ISIL.
'However in this case there is not the aggravating feature you were planning to fight against British or coalition forces.
'You were lonely, depressed, bored and isolated. You were highly susceptible to the malign influence of others.'
The judge praised the actions of his mother Anica in trying to prevent him going to Syria.
He added: 'But for her intervention the sentence I have passed would have been longer.'
Souaan, who faces being deported to Serbia as part of the foreign prisoner release scheme, blew kisses to his family sitting in the public gallery as he was led down to the cells.
His trial had heard how the student, the son of a Serbian Christian mother and Syrian Muslim father, grew up in his mother's country but had close family ties to Syria and had adopted his father's religion.
He came to the UK in 2013 on a three-year visa to study global politics and international relations at Birkbeck College in London, living in halls of residence in Malet Street.
He was arrested after fellow students became concerned at his radical views on Islam and he showed off pictures of himself posing with guns.
Classmates had described him as a 'nice, quiet, softly spoken young man' when he started studying global politics and international relations.
But he became more vocal in his religious beliefs after a trip to Syria in December 2013.
On January 3 last year he sent a Whatsapp message to a friend saying: 'Hello from Syria', which contained an image of Souaan sitting on part of a destroyed building.
He also posed for pictures with members of the local Free Syrian Army forces which had control of the area around his grandfather's house in Deir az-Zor.
A university friend said Souaan, who lived with him in central London student halls, had talked about his friends dying in battle.
'He pulled out his phone and started showing me pictures', said the witness.
'He made the reference to these dead people being people he knew. They died in battle.'
Souaan also boasted of taking one picture of the bodies himself, and had posed with weapons for other snaps.
'He said they were his friends and he said he was there when it happened', the witness added.
'He was involved in the activities, and he was quite pleased with his actions.
'He said he was part of the ongoing struggle that's out there in Syria in terms of liberation.
'He said that the people have been oppressed for a long time, they need to be liberated, and what's happening is wrong.
'He said there should be something for the people within the confines of Sharia Law and what the Koran teaches, not what the western world and anyone else thought.
'It should be a proper Islamic State.'
By May 2014 Souaan was leafletting around London to try to persuade others to convert and even suggested that his brother come with him to Syria.
He called people 'kaffir', meaning infidel or unbeliever, and became serious when anyone mentioned girls or alcohol.
On 31 May last year he and his mother Anica were stopped by police as they were about to board a flight to Serbia.
When police seized his laptop and phone they found pictures, videos and documents revealing his 'extremist sympathies' and that he had not only been fighting with rebels against President Bashar al-Assad in Syria before but was intending to return, the Old Bailey heard.
A document found on Souaan's laptop, written in Serbian, was titled 'apology, Leader of Al Kaida' and referred to the Islamic State.
It said: 'The State is not subservient to Al Kaida, not it ever was, it's more likely that if you enter Al Kaida Islamic state's territory it is your duty to give oath to the State.'
Prosecutor Sarah Whitehouse QC said one video clip on his phone was 'so graphic and so shocking' that it could not be played in court.
It featured a young-looking man kneeling with his head held back as another man cut his throat.
Mrs Whitehouse said: 'The victim was pushed face down in the mud where his last breaths can be heard. It cannot be said that Mr Souaan was present when that took place, it may have been downloaded from elsewhere.'
Another clip, created on 20 December 2013, showed Souaan and four others walking through a derelict urban site carrying automatic weapons.
The court heard that Souaan filmed himself attending a demonstration in the UK involving hate cleric Anjem Choudary.
Mrs Whitehouse said that a man – probably Souaan – could be heard in the background saying: 'The flag of Tawheed in London, all praise be to Allah the lord of the universe.
She told the court: 'This is a reference to the fervent wish of Muslim extremists to see the tawheed – the black flag of Islam – one day flying in Downing Street.'
In his defence, Souaan told jurors he had accompanied his father to his home town of Deir ez-Zor in Syria for two nights in December 2013.
He said he went to help retrieve his 82-year-old grandfather's belongings after he fled to Turkey with just the clothes on his back when his house was destroyed.
The defendant thought it was 'pretty much safe' for them to travel unarmed and alone six or seven hours by road from the border to the town in Eastern Syria, the jury heard.
He claims that he dressed in combat trousers and a black and white head scarf because his father told him they needed to 'blend in'.
Souaan said none of the weapons belonged to him and claims he wanted the pictures as 'trophies'.
'It was my first time seeing a gun, a real, proper gun, and for me it was something new so then I just asked can I have a look,' he added.
He posed for pictures with guns because he wanted to look 'cool', he said: 'At the time when I was there I felt something like I wanted some trophy – the photos.
'As the teenagers say nowadays, it looks "cool". So that was the reason.'
Souaan, whose father made a fortune in the construction business in Serbia, insisted that, while he was in the town held by the Free Syrian Army, he never had a weapon.
He said he had been 'lonely' in London after arriving for his first term of university on October 6 last year.
He kept in contact by text with his Christian Serbian girlfriend, Ana Lazovic, who had gone to Miami in the US to study.
She called him by his pet name 'little panda' and he told her he loved his 'little sweetie' 'more than anything in the world'.