Shabazz Suleman: Terror charge for man who disappeared in Turkey

Update From the BBC

After a hearing at Westminster Magistrates’ Court he was remanded into custody. He will next appear in court at the Old Bailey on 15 October.

From The Times and the Daily Mail

Shabazz Suleman, 25, from High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire, was arrested under the Terrorism Act at Heathrow Airport last week and is accused of multiple offences.

Thames Valley Police said he had been charged yesterday following an investigation by Counter Terrorism Policing South East (CTPSE).

Suleman is accused of having committed offences of preparing for acts of terrorism, under section 5 of the Terrorism Act 2006.

Suleman, 25, went missing while on a family holiday to Turkey in 2014 after completing his A-levels at the Royal Grammar School in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, and securing a place at Keele University.

Suleman, who had travelled to Syria the previous summer as part of an aid convoy, is accused of returning to the war-torn country to join Isis and of undergoing weapons training while with the group.

 Suleman said at the time that he had become embroiled in a clandestine mass prisoner swap between the Turkish government and armed groups after being picked up near the Turkish border with Syria during a period in which a number of militant groups were fighting to overthrow President Assad.

Afzal Suleman, his father, is a mechanic still based in High Wycombe. He has previously said that he knew his son “was thinking of going there [Syria] and helping people”.

Suleman was captured by a Turkish-backed militia called Liwa al-Shimal in Syria in October 2017. He was later freed by a court in Jarabulus, Syria, which said there was not enough evidence to convict him. The court is not internationally recognised, however.

His whereabouts have not been clear since, with one report suggesting he had reached Pakistan, his parents’ home country.

Suleman is due to appear before Westminster Magistrates’ Court in London today