Walsall terror trial: Suspect's ISIS talk was 'flirting'

Ayman Shaukat, aged 27, who is accused of helping two friends from Walsall travel to Syria to fight for Isis, told the Old Bailey yesterday the messages were part of an ongoing 'match-making' conversation he was having with a woman called Juveriah who a friend was trying to set him up with romantically.

The terrorism trial had previously heard Shaukat, of Pargeter Street, had an Islamic State flag hung above his bed and that extremist literature was found on a number of electronic devices when police searched his house.

In a series of WhatsApp messages to Juveriah produced by the prosecution, the pair are shown to be discussing Isis and the so-called Islamic State.

Shaukat uses the phrase 'radicalise and incite' when talking about persuading Juveriah. And later he talks about the two of them taking a 'holiday'.

When Juveriah asks "to?"

Shaukat replied: "Islamic State."

Asked to explain to comments by Mr Rajiv Menon QC for the defence, Shaukat said: "It was a light-hearted jokey conversation.

"It had become a jokey, flirty conversation."

Mr Menon asked: "Are you seriously talking about having a holiday to the Islamic State?"

Shaukat responded: "Absolutely not."

He also told the court a video of a destroyed mosque in northern Syria found on a laptop seized from his bedroom was narrated by a well-known charity worker called Shak who works for the Birmingham-based aid charity Children in Deen.

And he said Syrian banknotes found in his Ford Mondeo belonged to his father who he visited Syria with several times before the civil war.

And the jury was told an Isis propaganda video found on his mobile phone had been sent to him as part of research following the emergence of the so-called Islamic State.

Shaukat denies two counts of assisting Muslim convert Alex Nash, 22, of Bentley Street, and Sajit Aslam, 34, of Glebe Street, to travel to Syria with the purpose to commit acts of terrorism.

Also in the dock is Muslim convert Lorna Moore, 33, the wife of Aslam, also of Glebe Street, who denies a charge of failing to inform authorities of Aslam's plans.

It is alleged she was also planning to join her husband with their three children in Syria.

Nash has admitted that he intended to travel to Syria to join ISIS.

Other friends Jacob Petty, 25, of Slaney Street, and Isaiah Siadatan, 24, of Birmingham, are believed to have made it to Syria along with Aslam,

Petty was killed fighting in February 2015.

Siadatan's wife Kerry Thomason, 24, also a Muslim convert, has admitted assisting her husband in preparation of acts of terrorism.

The trial continues.