UK terror suspect wanted to join IS to exorcise 'evil spirits' that plagued him

London: A 22-year-old Pakistan-born British terror suspect wanted to join Islamic State militant group to exorcise the “evil spirits” that plagued him, a UK court has been told.

Mubashir Jamil, described as a “gifted” student from Luton in the east of England, is on trial on terrorism charges at the Old Bailey Court in London.

The computer gaming enthusiast is said to have been radicalised through his interest in the internet, Luton Today reported.

“The defence will say the defendant sought to join ISIS as a way of exorcising the various evil spirits that plagued him, that he did not have any intention to commit acts of terrorism anywhere, that he had no intention to engage in violent jihad,” Prosecutor Barnaby Jameson said at the ongoing trial this week, the report said.

“The Crown (Crown Prosecution Service) say there is clear evidence in this case of a radicalised young man who went out of his way to seek assistance online to join IS. He was caught, we say red handed, in the middle of an online conversation with Abu Hasan who turned out to be an undercover officer,” the Prosecutor said.

Jamil was arrested in April last year and had denied charges of preparing for terrorist acts by travelling to Syria.

The court was told that he had become obsessed with the idea of martyrdom after surfing the internet for ISIS propaganda.

“It was through the internet that the defendant was drawn into a world poles apart from that of a gifted schoolboy with A* in both the arts and the sciences. Through the world wide web the defendant became an extreme jihadist radical and follower of Islamic State,” Jameson said.

“He became a would-be ISIS recruit willing to sacrifice his life for ISIS and indeed the lives of others,” he said.

Jamil had allegedly offered to put on a suicide vest to execute a terrorist attack in the UK and was arrested by counter-terrorist officers a few days before a planned flight to Turkey.

In encrypted chat with an apparent ISIS contact in Syria who in reality was an undercover security official, he allegedly said: “I mean if they need someone to do attack from UK I can do it tomorrow... if they can send someone to my house with explosive vest I can be the person to press the button on the same day if they need.”

Jamil worked at a local Amazon warehouse in Luton and listed his interests as reading fiction, surfing the internet and physical training.

The trial is expected to last a few weeks.