Man who wore T-shirts backing terror groups sentenced

Feras Al Jayoosi pleaded guilty to four counts of wearing an article supporting a proscribed organisation

A man who wore T-shirts supporting banned Palestinian terrorist groups while among Jewish communities has been given a suspended prison sentence.

Feras Al Jayoosi, 34, admitted wearing T-shirts supporting the organisations in Golders Green, north London - an area with a large Jewish community.

At Westminster Magistrates' Court, Al Jayoosi was sentenced to 16 weeks in custody, suspended for two years.

Chief Magistrate Paul Goldspring said the Jewish community was "targeted".

Al Jayoosi pleaded guilty to four counts of wearing an article supporting a proscribed organisation.

The court heard the defendant wore T-shirts supporting Hamas ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades - the military wing of the Palestinian organisation Hamas - and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

Both groups are banned terrorist organisations in the UK.

Three of the charges relate to Al Jayoosi wearing the T-shirts in Golders Green on 8 and 9 June.

The fourth relates to an incident at Barbury Castle, an Iron Age hill fort in Wiltshire, on 30 May.

The defendant was told his autism and Asperger's reduced his culpability, and meant he would not be held in custody immediately.

Al Jayoosi was told the case was not about his support for the Palestinian people.

Sentencing Al Jayoosi, Judge Goldspring said he had caused "high harm" in targeting the Jewish community, and had been warned he would get himself into trouble if he continued to support the banned organisations.

He also explained the case was not about the defendant supporting the cause of the Palestinian people.

He said: "You and very many others - rightly - feel very strongly about that.

"It's about supporting organisations that believe the way to solving the problem is in ways that are violent and that we should all abhor... there were many ways you could have expressed your support for the cause without finding yourself in court."

Al Jayoosi, from Swindon, was also ordered to carry out 100 hours of community service and was banned from the NW11 postcode of London.