Islamist fighter's wife Amaani Noor guilty of £34 terror donation

Amaani Noor donated £34 to a group called The Merciful Hands

A woman who married an Islamist fighter online has been convicted of funding terrorism.‎

Amaani Noor, 21, of Liverpool was convicted of donating $45 (£34) to terrorist group The Merciful Hands on 23 May last year.

Liverpool Crown Court heard she married Hakim Noor via a videolink ceremony and planned to join him in Syria.

Noor, a former beauty contestant and ex-girlfriend of a professional footballer, had denied the charge.

She claimed she thought the money was going to buy food for women and children in Syria.

Amaani Noor and Victoria Webster will be sentenced on 20 December

The jury heard on the same day Noor, of Cinema Drive, Wavertree married she joined The Merciful Hands and sent money under a false name.

The former Miss Teen GB semi-finalist had booked flights to Turkey when police searched her home, the court heard.

She told the court she was planning to join her husband, who she said described himself as an "independent" fighter in Syria, and she believed he was fighting for Islam and Sharia law.

Noor said she focused on religion after she broke up from an unfaithful boyfriend who was "in the public eye" when she was 18, then began discussing extremist organisations with people she met on the internet following a failed marriage to a Muslim preacher.

'Very murky'

During the trial, the court was read messages sent on the Telegram app between her and a man called Kareem Scent L and Victoria Webster, 28, of Nelson, Lancashire, who has pleaded guilty to three counts of fundraising contrary to the Terrorism Act 2000.

Noor accepted some of the views she expressed in them appeared "harder" than views of the Islamic State.

Judge Andrew Menary QC said it was a "sad case" and told the jury it now had insight into a "very murky" online world "where people speak casually about some pretty awful things that are going on".

He said Miss Noor "was in a relationship with someone in the public eye... a professional footballer, so her life undoubtedly at some point changed dramatically".

Jenny Hopkins, from the Crown Prosecution Service, said Noor and Webster "knew or should have known their donations may have been used to buy weapons and supplies for terrorists in Syria".

Noor was given conditional bail. She and Webster will be sentenced on 20 December.