Overview
- A jury at Birmingham Crown Court unanimously convicted 24-year-old Abdullah Yousef on 6 October 2026 of membership of a proscribed organisation, possession of information likely to assist terrorism, and six counts of disseminating terrorist publications.
- Prosecutors presented phone evidence showing Yousef created a Telegram group in May 2024 that circulated vast volumes of Islamic State material, with the court told the channel contained thousands of images and videos and hundreds of links.
- Officers seized a 15-page document about constructing an explosive vest from Yousef’s mobile phone and an explosives expert told the court the material was credible and potentially useful to someone building an improvised explosive device.
- Yousef largely refused to answer police questions, later said pro-IS messages were a joke and that the explosive-vest file was found online, but the jury rejected those explanations and the case was adjourned for a pre-sentence report ahead of sentencing.
- Counter Terrorism Policing South East led the investigation and warned that encrypted and semi-encrypted platforms such as Telegram are used to spread violent propaganda and instructional material that can radicalise vulnerable people and complicate detection.