GUILTY: Walsall dry-cleaners sold BMW and wedding gold to fund terrorist brother fighting for ISIS
Three men were today found guilty of funding an ISIS fighter from Walsall by selling his BMW and wife's wedding gold.
A jury at the Old Bailey in London convicted dry-cleaners Mohammed Iqbal Hussain and Mohamed Suyaubur Rohaman of sending £10,000 to their brother Musadikur Rohaman and his wife Zohura Siddeka who had fled to Syria to join the bloodthirsty fundamentalists.
Also found guilty was Mohammed Atiqur Rahman Khan who took out credit cards in the jihadist's name.
Hussain, 26, of Castle Road, Walsall Wood, was found guilty of five counts of funding terrorism. Rohaman, 32, of the same address, was convicted of a single charge, while Khan, 27, of Buckle Close, Caldmore, was found guilty of two counts.
A fourth man, Maruf Uddin, 26, of Earl Street, Palfrey, was found not guilty of a single count of raising funds for terrorism by placing items on eBay.
The court was told how Musadikur and his Siddeka, both then aged 27, failed to return from a city break to Istanbul in December 2014 following the death of their baby after 11 days.
They set up life in Raqqa and had a baby son.
Musadikur was injured while fighting for ISIS against the Syrian Army and the PKK Kurdish militant group.
The jury was shown mobile phone messages on WhatsApp between Musadikur and his family where he confirmed he would not be going back.
Hussain, the youngest of eight siblings, ran the family's well-known All Season launderette on Caldmore Road, Caldmore.
He had frequent exchanges with Musadikur using encrypted messaging apps on his mobile phone.
He sold his brother's BMW for £4,000, collected his sister-in-law's maternity pay for a baby that died months before, and would have sold his brother's wedding clothes had their mother not stopped him.
In the witness box he told the jury that as the youngest brother he was told not to question his elders and must follow instructions.
He said while he knew his brother was in Syria he believed he was building houses.
He also told the jury he was not religious and did not hold extremist views.
But a message from him on his phone to an unknown contact read: "West will always have it out against us only true option is move abroad...just pray they're protected and not persecuted...so many brothers and sisters from Walsall have gone on Hijra."
Hussain got his older brother, Suyaubur Rohaman, to transfer £10,000 in cash from the sale of the BMW and accumulation of the maternity pay to six different Syrian accounts in Lebanon over two days in March last year, via the Western Union facility at Imran Video shop two doors down from the family launderette.
They brothers also enlisted the help of Khan who was a friend of Musadikur. The self-employed accountant tried to take out credit cards in his pal's name to use the credit facility to get access to more cash. However he was only successful in obtaining one card which was never used.
The three men will be sentenced on September 9 and face a maximum of 14 years behind bars.
The inquiry into the trio began when officers were investigating other members of a group in Walsall for unrelated terrorism offences.
Ayman Shaukat, Alex Nash, Kerry Thomason, and Lorna Moore were all convicted of terrorism-related crimes in May, with only Thomason avoiding an immediate prison term.
Assistant Chief Constable Marcus Beale, who leads on counter-terrorism for the West Midlands, explained how Hussain, Rohaman and Khan were caught.
He said: "Police originally searched the Castle Road address in June 2015, in relation to the disappearance and suspected travel to Syria of Rohaman and Siddeka.
"Investigations found that Musadikur was fighting in Syria and that both Iqbal and Suyaubur were aware of what their brother was doing. It is believed Musadikur directed his brothers in what he needed doing and sent them names of who to transfer money to.
"Initially Iqbal had money transferred to his account from Zohura Siddeka before being provided with her internet banking password and account details.
"Iqbal then accessed her account and transferred the money to himself, before withdrawing it in cash and transferring the money to his brother via Western Union.
"Suyaubur then used his passport to carry out a number of money transfers to Musadikur."
ACC Beale added: "Disruption of terrorist funding is an important part of our investigations.
"Sending money to those actively engaged in terrorism helps fund their activities and we will continue to act on any intelligence and disrupt the flow of money to conflict zones."
