Younes Tsouli

Younes Tsouli is a Moroccan-born resident of the United Kingdom who, in 2007, was found guilty of incitement to commit acts of terrorism (a crime introduced in the Terrorism Act 2006) and sentenced to 16 years in prison. His crimes were carried out via the internet, where he was known by several pseudonyms based on variations of Irhabi 007; "Irhabi" being the Arabic word for "terrorist", and "007" a reference to the fictional British secret agent, James Bond.

Tsouli's activities included setting up web sites and web forums in support of Al-Qaeda and distributing video material filmed by the Iraqi insurgency. His primary co-conspirators were Waseem Mughal and Tariq Al-Daour. Their activities were funded by Al-Daour, who was found to be in possession of 37,000 credit card details, which were linked to more than €2.5 million worth of fraudulent transactions. Tsouli has been called the "world's most wanted cyber-jihadist", and his conviction was the first under British law for incitement to commit an act of terrorism through the internet.

Activities from 2003–2005 Tsouli first appeared on web forums in 2003. He attracted the attention of Aaron Weisburd on a forum called "Islamic Terrorists", where he initially appeared to be a harmless agitator, "At first I started publishing bits and pieces of what he was doing online for comic relief, and really had no appreciation of where he was headed". Tsouli and Weisburd taunted each other online "I would give him a message like, 'Your days are numbered – you’re going to get caught'. He, on the other hand, was participating in discussions about which part of my body they wanted when I was killed, and he said he wanted one of my fingers as a souvenir".

Arrest and conviction

On 11 September 2005, a group calling itself "al-Qaeda in Northern Europe" posted a declaration on the al-Ansar web site. Following this, 18-year-old Swedish citizen Mirsad Bektašević, who was one of those responsible for the declaration, travelled to Bosnia where he and Abdulkadir Cesur filmed a video in which they wore ski masks, and, surrounded by weapons and explosives, said that they intended to attack sites in Europe to punish nations with forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. On 17 October 2005 Bektašević was arrested in Sarajevo, and analysis of his laptop identified Tsouli in his buddy list and his mobile phone records showed that he had recently called Tsouli. The Metropolitan Police were informed, and on 21 October 2005, Tsouli was arrested in a raid on a house in Shepherd's Bush, London. He was charged under the UK's Terrorism Act 2000 for "conspiracy to murder, conspiracy to cause an explosion, conspiracy to obtain money by deception, fundraising and possession of articles for terrorist purposes".

The trial began in May 2007. Judge Peter Openshaw caused some controversy when he halted the trial to ask what a web site was, saying "The trouble is I don’t understand the language. I don’t really understand what a website is." Following this, Professor Tony Sammes was called upon to give a presentation which explained what the internet is, how people can access the internet, and what web sites are. On 18 December 2007, at the Court of Criminal Appeal, the sentences of all three men were increased – Tsouli's sentence was increased to 16 years, Mughal to 12 years and Al Daour 12 years.

Release

After a failed attempt to claim asylum in the UK, upon his release from prison in 2015 Tsouli was deported to Morocco. There he is reported to have chastised his family about their lifestyle, then after setting fire to the family's home in Rabat, he climbed across rooftops to the apartment building that housed the Consul General of the UK and threatened to kill himself with a knife. According to media reports, it took nearly 13 hours for the police with the assistance of a psychiatrist to persuade Tsouli to surrender. After initially being arrested he was later released by the Moroccan authorities, who complained to the UK government that they had not been informed of the danger Tsouli posed.