Terror accused 'did not know' about teenager's IS plan

Aseel Muthana travelled to Syria in 2014

A man had no idea a Cardiff teenager he helped get to Syria would join up with Islamic State militants, a court heard.

Forhad Rahman, 21, of Cirencester, Gloucestershire, is one of three men accused of helping Aseel Muthana, 19, to follow his brother to Syria.

Mr Rahman said he thought Aseel Muthana was going to "help people".

Rahman, Kristen Brekke, 20, of Cardiff, and Adeel Ulhaq, 21, of Sutton-in-Ashfield, Nottinghamshire, deny preparing for acts of terrorism.

Aseel Muthana followed his brother Nasser to join so-called Islamic State (IS) in February 2014.

The Old Bailey heard Mr Rahman helped Aseel Muthana get a passport and paid for his flight and a coach ticket to Gatwick.

Henry Blaxland QC, defending, asked: "When Aseel told you he was going to go to Syria, and did eventually go to Syria, what was the point of it?"

He replied: "To help people, defend the Syrians from oppression. At the time it was well known, it was like a normal thing. Many people were going."

Only after he left did Aseel Muthana tell him he had joined IS and had injured his foot in training, he said.

"When we discussed this, Isis was not the plan," he added.

Kristen Brekke from Grangetown in Cardiff is one of the three men charged

Nasser Muthana, who travelled to Syria three months before his brother, appeared in an IS propaganda video entitled 'There Is No life Without Jihad' in June 2014.

Mr Rahman was arrested in August 2014, three weeks before the first public executions were being carried out by IS, the court heard.

Asked how his idea of IS had changed, he said: "As soon as the first beheading happened and ISIS made a whole media production out of it. This was completely different from the ISIS before.

"It was an aid worker who went out to help people. It did not make sense to me. It is barbaric.

"You cannot just record someone being beheaded who has done nothing wrong, who went out to help people. There is no justification for it."

The defendant told jurors he met Aseel Muthana after he responded to his posting on Twitter about attending a Muslim youth event near where he was living at the time in Fulham, west London.

The trial continues.