A terrorist recruiter who declared his intention to join the Islamic State (IS) is about to be released from custody but looks set to avoid being deported. 32-year-old Aras Mohammed Hamid was given a seven-year prison term in 2017 for radicalising a fellow Kurd living in Britain.
Prior to deciding to release him, authorities including security agency leaders, police, and jail counterterrorism teams were consulted for reports.
Hamid will be permitted to stay in the UK forever because his human rights would be infringed if he were sent back to Iraq.
He is thought to be the principal organiser of preparations to transfer fighters to an IS Kurdish force.
The cost of tens of thousands of pounds is anticipated to be covered by the general public.
A source told the Sun: “This man is a proven danger. Members of the public will be rightly outraged to hear this man is going to be walking the streets a free man.
“He wanted to join IS and was a recruiter as well.”
Nigel Mills, a Conservative Party MP, expressed his strong disapproval by stating: “This individual should not be granted freedom to wander freely in society.”
Hamid, an asylum-seeker at the time from Coventry, was found guilty of two charges related to preparing for acts of terrorism. His co-defendant, Shivan Hayder Azeez, aged 21 from Sheffield, received a three-year prison sentence.
During the proceedings at Kingston Crown Court, it was revealed that Azeez had been sent to the UK by his family to protect him after he had engaged in combat against extremists alongside the Kurdish Peshmerga group.
However, influenced by Hamid, Azeez decided to switch sides and accompany him to Iraq to fight for IS.
According to BirminghamLive, Hamid had been pivotal in plans for Ahmed Ismail, a student from Coventry, and Azeez to travel from Gatwick to Sulaymaniyah in Iraq.
Preparations included Hamid meeting Ismail in the city during the planning in May 2016.
But he was discovered, alongside Azeez, after they were found by police sleeping at a mosque in Birmingham. Azeez, then aged 21, was arrested.
But Hamid was held two days later when he was found hiding in the back of a lorry on the A2, near Dover, as he attempted to smuggle himself out of the country.
Ismail received an 18-month prison term for failing to disclose information about acts of terrorism.
Azeez was jailed for three years for preparing for acts of terrorism.
