Wissam Ziad: 'Dangerous' man admits spreading terror material

Wissam Ziad admitted eight charges under the Terrorism Act

A man who encouraged support for terrorist groups has been sentenced.

Wissam Ziad's electronic devices contained a "colossal" number of files with propaganda for extremist groups, police said.

He was arrested after using social media groups to share material.

The 20-year-old was sentenced at Manchester Crown Court for three years and five months in a youth offenders' institute after admitting eight charges under the Terrorism Act.

They included six counts of disseminating terrorist publications, one count of encouraging terrorism and another of supporting a proscribed organisation.

Officers from Counter Terrorism Policing North West (CTPNW) said Ziad first came to their attention when one of his acquaintances was stopped at London Stansted Airport in September 2019.

They found links to Islamic extremist material on a chat group called 'Roma Pizza', which was administered by Ziad.

Police said the conversations ranged from general chat to the sharing of terrorist material and views about the Islamic State group (ISIS).

'Dangerous man'

Ziad, who has dual British and Jordanian nationality, was arrested in May 2020 and his phone and computer seized, police said.

The force said officers had to navigate through a significant volume of data - about 3.5TB (terabytes) or approximately 263 million sheets of paper - before eventually re-arresting him at his residence in Central Avenue, Levenshulme this June.

He later admitted eight charges under the terrorism legislation.

Det Ch Insp Andrew Meeks, from CTPNW, said: "Ziad possessed a colossal amount of extremist material capable of encouraging terrorism, and used social media and chat groups to communicate with people all over the world, using VPNs (virtual private networks) to hide his identity while online.

"He incited support and encouraged others to research extremist organisations, positioning himself as a religious authority - he is a dangerous man with extremist views and is quite rightly behind bars."

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