Man who threatened Blair, Brown handed 5 year jail term

A man who has asked Muslims to assassinate former British prime ministers Tony Blair and Gordon Brown and has posed as head of "al-Qaeda in Britain" has been jailed for five years.

23-year-old Ishaq Kanmi of Blackburn, said the two former prime ministers would be targeted by "martyrdom seekers" if his demands were not met.

He was convicted of professing to belong to al-Qaeda and for inviting support for it. He posed as the head of "al -Qaeda in Britain" on a website in 2008.

Charges, which he denied, of soliciting to kill the ex-PMs were not pursued.

In May, when Kanmi admitted other charges, the Crown Prosecution Service said it was willing for the counts relating to Brown and Blair to lie on file.

At that time, Kanmi also admitted collecting or making a record of information likely to be useful to a terrorist and three counts of disseminating terrorist publications.

In his postings, written in January 2008, Kanmi called for the withdrawal of UK troops from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Kanmi was arrested at Manchester airport in August 2008 carrying three electronic storage devices and a mobile phone which contained terror-related information he intended to distribute.

First Published: Jun 24, 2010 21:48 IST