London man jailed for sharing IS beheading videos
- Published
Stefan Aristidou was arrested at Heathrow and charged with disseminating terrorist propaganda
A British man who was radicalised online and tried to join Islamic State in Syria has been jailed in the UK for sharing the group's beheading videos.
Stefan Aristidou, from Enfield, north London, returned to the UK in February after serving a partial sentence in Turkey for being a member of IS.
The 27-year-old was arrested at Heathrow and charged with disseminating terrorist propaganda publications.
He was jailed for two years and four months after admitting the offence.
The Old Bailey heard how the propaganda videos showed mass executions and sniper assassinations as well as beheadings. Aristidou was not charged with being a member of IS by the UK authorities due to a lack of evidence.
Aristidou, who converted to Islam in 2013, served less than a third of his Turkish sentence because he was released and deported as part of the country's attempts to control the spread of Covid in the prison population.
In April 2015, he left London with his new bride heading for Syria via Cyprus and Turkey.
The couple are believed to have spent two years in Syria, the court heard, although it is unclear what they were doing while they were there.
They were arrested by the Turkish authorities at the country's border with Syria in April 2017. A year later Aristidou was sentenced to a jail term of six years and three months; his wife and their child were sent back to the UK.
In July this year he admitted four of the counts relating to IS propaganda videos over a five-week period between November and December 2014. The remaining three charges were left to lie on file.
Prosecutor Kelly Brocklehurst said some of the videos "had a production style reminiscent of modern gaming culture and are clearly aimed at glorifying extreme violence in the name of a political and purportedly religious cause".
Judge Mark Dennis QC said his "determined and successful attempt" to join IS forced him to conclude "there would remain even now a significant risk of serious harm being caused to others by the defendant committing further specified offences".
He added: "Instead of being repulsed by such sickening violence, you were drawn to it and chose to leave your family and to join and support those who glorified in such violence and promoted the violent extremist cause."