London: A British Muslim man was Friday sentenced to six years' imprisonment by a UK court for showing an Islamic State (ISIS) beheading video to schoolchildren.
Zameer Ghumra was found guilty of disseminating terrorist propaganda and trying to brainwash young boys into supporting ISIS at Nottingham Crown Court Friday.
The 38-year-old pharmacist, believed to be of Arabic origin, also told the children they should kill anyone who insulted Islam and instructed them to make only Muslim friends.
"These were shocking crimes which damaged the children and caused offence to the vast majority of law-abiding Muslims," Judge Gregory Dickson said.
The judge also noted the lack of remorse shown by Ghumra during his trial when determining his sentence. The jury was told that the children, who came in contact with the accused at a madrassa he had set up, were encouraged to go to Syria to fight with the ISIS where they would have to behead people.
Ghumra also followed various ISIS-linked social media accounts and made the two children follow similar accounts. Prosecutor Simon Davis said Ghumra had told a customer that ISIS were "not bad people they're only defending themselves".
Ghumra, from the city of Leicester, was working as a pharmacist in Oundle, Northamptonshire, when he was arrested at Birmingham Airport in September 2015.
He had denied the charges and claimed that the children had been induced to make "false allegations" against him. Sue Hemming of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said: "Zameer Ghumra tried to brainwash impressionable children with this violent ideology by making one watch beheading videos and urging them both to adopt a hard line religious outlook."
"The CPS case was that he intended to radicalise them in the hope that they would go on to be involved in terrorism.
"The children were brave to give evidence and we would like to thank them for helping to secure this conviction of a dangerous man," Hemming said.
Ghumra was found guilty of the charge of disseminating "terrorist propaganda" in the form of a graphic Twitter video on his mobile phone between January 2013 and September 2014.
Detective Chief Superintendent Martin Snowden, head of Counter Terrorism Policing North East, said: "That act alone is unforgivable. His teaching role increases his risk, potentially giving him direct access to young or vulnerable people who may look up to him as an authority figure."
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