Ugandan, Others, Convicted On U.K. Terror Charges

Yassin who pleaded guilty of the three counts of receiving terrorism training of weaponry at Woodland areas near Matleywood Caravan and camping site, Beaulieu, Lyndhurst, near Southampton was given the relatively light sentence.

[Africa News Update: Uganda]

After a four month trial, four men including a Ugandan were found guilty of involvement in terror training activities on the territories of the United Kingdom.

Press reporting restrictions were lifted Tuesday, February 26, when the sentences were announced. It was then revealed that Muhammad Kyriacou, 19, and a Ugandan born Yassin Mutegombwa, 23, had pleaded guilty on Tuesday on charges that they attended the training camps, at a separate hearing.

Under Section 6 (1) of the U.K. Terrorism Act 2006, receiving training in terrorism is illegal.

Kyriacou and Mutegombwa, who both came from South London, were both given a three year and five months lenient jail sentence.  Yassin is an elder brother to Hassan, 21, who was convicted at an earlier Old Bailey Court trial last November 2007, for allegedly seeking funds for terrorism training overseas while at one of the camps and given a 10-year jail sentence.

That younger brother, Hassan, was stopped from boarding a British Airways flight to Nairobi when the airliner was alerted by British authorities after obtaining information that he had borrowed some money from an undercover agent named “Douda.” His family denounced the verdict saying he was convicted with no evidence.

Whilst Hassan who was charged with one count of procuring funds for alleged terrorism activities was given a 10 years jail sentence, his elder brother Yassin who pleaded guilty of the three counts of receiving terrorism training of weaponry at Woodland areas near Matleywood Caravan and camping site, Beaulieu, Lyndhurst, near Southampton was given the relatively light sentence.

Yassin’s first two charges were that he received terrorism training in 2006, at woodland area near Matley Wood Caravan and Camping site, Beaulieu Road Lyndhurst, Hampshire. The third charge was the he received terrorism training near Pondwood Farm, White Waltham, Berks on June 18, 2006.

The Ugandan brothers were arrested September 1st, 2006, during Scotland Yard’s anti-terror raids across London and charged days later. They have since been detained at the UK’s most protected jail HM Prison Belmarsh.

The leader of the group, Mohammed Hamid, called himself Osama bin London, it is alleged. Before his arrest, Hamid had boasted to his followers that he had been organizing terror training camps in Britain for thirteen years, it is alleged.
Hamid was found guilty by a jury at Woolwich Crown Court of three counts of “soliciting to murder” and three counts of providing terrorist training.

However, he was found not guilty of two other counts of soliciting murder and not guilty of providing training in weaponry. He was also found not guilty of possessing a document containing information useful to a terrorist.

Four others had been on trial with him. It took 22 days of deliberation for the a jury to convict three of these individuals – Kibley Da Costa, Muhammad al-Figari and Kader Ahmed guilty of attending terror training camps in Britain. 41-year old property developer Mousa Brown was found not guilty, and was freed from custody.

Mohammed Hamid was born in 1957 in Tanzania to Muslim parents who had come from India. Aged five, he came to Britain with his family, settling in the town of Heckmondwike and later Batley in West Yorkshire. He came to London while only 12, moving into a home with his elder brother.


Investigative reporter Miwambo writes for The Black Star from Europe. He can be reached with news tips via [email protected]

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