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| British cyber-jihadist Babar Ahmad jailed in US | British cyber-jihadist Babar Ahmad jailed in US |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| A British cyber-jihadist has been sentenced in a US court to 12-and-a-half years' imprisonment after admitting terrorism offences. | |
| Babar Ahmad, of Tooting, south London, had admitted conspiracy and providing material to support the Taliban. | Babar Ahmad, of Tooting, south London, had admitted conspiracy and providing material to support the Taliban. |
| Ahmad has already spent 10 years in prison in the UK and US and his lawyer thinks he could be released in about seven-and-a-half months. | Ahmad has already spent 10 years in prison in the UK and US and his lawyer thinks he could be released in about seven-and-a-half months. |
| He waived his right to an appeal as part of a plea agreement. | He waived his right to an appeal as part of a plea agreement. |
| Ahmad is expected to carry out the remainder of his sentence in New York's Metropolitan Correctional Center. | |
| Ahmad, who spent a decade fighting against conviction, was accused of being the mastermind behind the world’s first English website dedicated to jihad. | |
| Ahmad had thousands of supporters in the UK during his record eight-year battle against extradition. | |
| He was accused of operating the now defunct Azzam.com family of websites, established to spread jihad in 1996. | |
| The websites published reports of mujahedeen battles in Bosnia and Chechnya, and called for support for the Taliban. | |
| Later, they also published documents setting out Osama bin Laden’s call for a holy war against the West. | |
| The US authorities said his online activities had an almost unprecedented global reach and that he sent recruits to train with the Taliban. | |
| Ahmad was never charged with an offence in the UK, despite his network operating in London. | |
| Ahmad, 40, has admitted he ran the sites and said he made a grave error as a young man in going on to support the Taliban, but he denied that his interpretation of jihad for self-defence had developed into support for al-Qaeda inspired terrorist attacks. |