Man who travelled to Syria to fight for terrorist group jailed

A man who travelled to Syria with the intention of committing acts of terrorism and then returned to the UK has been jailed, following an investigation by the Met's Counter Terrorism Command.

Commander Dominic Murphy, head of the Met's Counter Terrorism Command said: "Anyone who returns to the UK after fighting for a terrorist group will be thoroughly investigated, no matter how long it has been since they left the country.

“We work very closely with other partners and agencies here in the UK and overseas in order to identify these individuals and keep the public safe.

“A Terrorism Act conviction will also be followed by strict notification requirements, ensuring we can monitor offenders closely, even after they are released from prison.”

Isa Giga, 32 (11.02.1993), previously of Hounslow, west London, was arrested at Heathrow Airport on 23 May 2024 after he caught a flight back from Turkey.

Met counter terrorism police had been notified in 2018 that Giga had travelled to Syria, via Turkey, to fight for the Jaysh Al Fath group, which was part of an alliance of Islamist armed factions fighting in the Syrian civil war, including an Al-Qaeda affiliated group.

Giga was convicted on 18 July of an offence contrary to section 5 of the Terrorism Act, 2006 after a two-week trial at the Old Bailey.

The jury heard Giga flew from Heathrow to Istanbul on 7 September 2015 and then took a connecting flight to Adana in the south of Turkey. From there he crossed the border into Syria.

Evidence gathered by Met counter terrorism officers included emails and social media messages from Giga’s family, which proved he had travelled to Syria to ‘fight for Jihad’.

This was also matched with flight passenger records and transactions from his bank account.

Further evidence was gathered from messages Giga sent on a social media messaging platform to an undercover officer in June 2016. Giga explains how he “never knew about jihad until 2015” when ISIS took control of parts of Syria.

Giga said he supported ‘Nusra’, part of the Jaysh Al Fath group, and ‘wanted martyrdom very soon in the first row’ (the battlefield in Syria).

He was sentenced at the Old Bailey on Friday, 17 October to nine years in jail.