CITY BARBER A SUPPORTER OF I.S. TERROR

Iraqi-born man jailed for sharing beheading video

- By PATRICK EDRICH

A MAN who worked as a barber and partied in nightclubs privately sent a beheading video to a Whats App group promoting Islamic State.

Iraqi-born Mohammed Hamad came to the UK illegally in 2016 and settled in Liverpool after he claimed he could not return home to Iraqi Kurdistan because his life was in danger.

But in June 2022 the now 30-year-old was added into a WhatsApp group made of “trusted brothers,” who shared Islamic State propaganda videos which depicted soldiers being executed and set on fire. Hamad responded with messages of support to the other members of the group, before he posted two videos himself which “encouraged the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism”.

Hamad was said to drink alcohol, go to nightclubs, have gay and lesbian friends and live a traditional western lifestyle. But on Friday at Liverpool Crown Court, Judge Neil Flewitt KC told him: “It demonstrates the hypocrisy of a person willing to embrace a Western lifestyle while privately supporting a terrorist organisation trying to destroy it.”

David Earl, prosecuting, told the sentencing hearing that Hamad was added to a WhatsApp group on June 18, 2022. The group was made up of a small number of people who were “trusted brothers,” including Tshko Mohamad, Roshman Saeed and Omar Ahmadi.