An Islamic Sunday school teacher who was caught with an Islamic State (IS) video was granted asylum in the UK before allegedly giving children “lessons in jihad”, a court heard.
Dzhamilya Timaeva, 20, is facing jail after she was convicted of possessing the video, calling for arson attacks. She was arrested at Heathrow Airport as she was about to board a flight to Turkey in October 2022, the Old Bailey heard.
The video, called Incite the Believers, encouraged viewers, if they did not have a gun or a knife, to carry out arson attacks on buildings, forests and agricultural land.
When she was questioned by police, Timaeva was shown the film and said: “It’s the first time I watched the video.” But when she was rearrested on March 2 2023, officers found she had made a voice note on her phone, bragging about how she had lied to police.
In December, Timaeva denied but was convicted of possession of a document for terrorist purposes in relation to Incite the Believers.
She was cleared of three charges of disseminating terrorist publications between October 2022 and March 2023, including one relating to a cartoon book called Little Muwahideen.The prosecution offered no evidence on a further charge of dissemination of a terrorist publication.
‘Kept videos of fighters’
Mark Lucraft, KC, the Recorder of London, has lifted restrictions allowing her conviction to be reported. She will be sentenced on March 7.
Timaeva and her family arrived in Britain in 2013 as refugees from Chechnya after being denied asylum in Switzerland and Luxembourg, the court was previously told.
They lived in Cardiff for six years until they were granted asylum in 2019, and moved to Windsor, Berkshire, where they still live.
Timaeva said earlier that Islam was central to her life and told jurors she had memorised the Koran at the age of 12.
The court heard that she kept videos on her phone of fighters amongst rubble, with voiceovers encouraging a holy war in the name of Islam. She said the clips related only to freedom fighters in Chechnya wanting to free themselves from Russian control.
She had 5,370 videos on her phone, many of which contained extremist content calling for violence against non-believers and Jewish people. Of those films, 2,800 had been accessed on Telegram, the encrypted social media account.
Timaeva insisted much of the content had been downloaded automatically.
‘Overthrowing incomplete religions’
She was the head teacher at the Windsor Muslim Association and was due to begin teaching classes at the Tawheed Islamic Education Centre, a Sunday school in Maidenhead, the court heard.
Timaeva devised lesson plans and a curriculum for the children attending the Tawheed school. She printed 70 picture books to distribute to children called Little Muwahideen. The book instructs young readers that they have a “duty” of waging war for Islam.
Jurors were shown pages from the book, which refers to “overthrowing incomplete religions like democracy and capitalism”. Another page reads: “We have prepared for the disbelievers a humiliating torment.”
Giving evidence, Timaeva claimed many of the videos downloaded when she became a member of various groups on the Telegram encrypted messaging service.
Asked about a document on her phone called The Debate Between the Sword and the Pen, Timaeva said: “I don’t remember seeing it. I did not deliberately download it.”
She was asked why she used the encrypted service, replying: “I used it to keep in contact with friends and also to subscribe to Islamic channels.”
