LONDON, Sept 23: A British convert to Islam was jailed for 15 years after being convicted here on Friday on two charges of possessing articles for use in terrorism. Andrew Rowe, 34, was found guilty of having a book containing notes on how to fire a mortar bomb, plus details of a secret communication code. He was jailed for seven-and-a-half years for each charge.
The court had been told that traces of high explosives were found on a pair of socks rolled up into a ball. They were found in his luggage on the French side of the Channel Tunnel rail link, where he was arrested trying to return to Britain in October 2003.
The book containing notes on mortar bombs and the code were subsequently found during police raids in London and Birmingham, the jury trial at the Old Bailey criminal court was told.
The jury could not reach a verdict on a third charge of possession of articles for use in terrorism, relating to the socks.
Judge Adrian Fulford said the convert was on the verge of committing a terrorist outrage when he was stopped.
Fulford told Rowe: “You were a paid operative over a substantial period of time, travelling the world and furthering the cause of Muslim fundamentalism.”
The judge said the government should consider harsher sentences for the offences, including a discretionary life sentence.
Rowe, from Maida Vale in northwest London and of West Indian origin, had denied possessing articles for use in terrorism.
Detectives found an encryption system designed to make a secret message look like a list of mobile phone models at the addresses in London and Birmingham.
Prosecutor Mark Ellison said the code ‘made it possible to communicate in an innocent message which only spoke about mobile telephones.’
He gave examples of the code. Money was Nokia 3310, weapon 3610 and airport 3310.
Ellison said there were also codes for explosive materials, which made the document a ‘shopping list for terrorism’.
The prosecution alleged that the socks, attached to a cord, could have been used to clean a mortar tube.
Rowe testified that he had used the socks as gloves for unloading ammunition in Bosnia in 1995, when the former Yugoslav republic was in the throes of war, and had since used them as a target for martial arts kicks.
Ellison said Rowe travelled extensively after becoming a Muslim. He visited conflict zones and had four passports in seven years. —-AFP
