Manchester terror accused 'made hub for extremists'

A student with a "radical belief in violent jihad" created a "hub of communication" to help "like-minded" men travel to fight, a jury has heard.

Abdullahi Ahmed Jama Farah, of South Grove, Manchester, had helped a man go to Syria, prosecutor Gareth Patterson told London's Old Bailey.

He added it was clear from what was on the 20-year-old's computers that he supported so-called Islamic State (IS).

Mr Jama Farah denies a charge of preparing for terrorist acts.

Mr Patterson said while there was "no evidence he himself committed any acts of terrorism", the A-level student had "performed an important role as the hub of communication of messages from within this country".

'Tightly knit group'

He said that from his mother's home, Mr Jama Farah had "facilitated communications within a tightly-knit group of like-minded friends, who shared the same extremist ideological beliefs and supported the use of serious violence in order to create an Islamic state".

As well as helping Nur Hassan travel to Syria, the prosecutor said the Danish 20-year-old, who is of Somali origin, had been in contact with four friends abroad via messaging service Whatsapp and social media.

The court heard that Mr Jama Farah's cousin Ahmed Ibrahim Halane went to Somalia in September 2013, where he is thought to have joined the terrorist group Al-Shabaab, while his close friends Raphael Hostey, Mohammed Javeed and Khalil Raoufi had headed from the North West of England to Syria in 2013 to join IS.

Raoufi was later killed in combat and Hostey was shot and injured. Javeed ended up in Iraq and is now believed to be dead, jurors were told.

The court was also told when Jama Farah was arrested in March 2014, he told police he knew them all through his cousin Halane and they were close friends.

The trial continues.