UK Sikh teen plotted to join ISIS in Syria

London, January 25

An 18-year-old British-Sikh girl, who converted to Islam as a teenager, tried to trick her schoolteacher into counter-signing photographs for a passport application to be able to travel to Syria and join the Islamic State terror network, a court has been told.

Sandeep Samra claimed she wanted to help the terrorist group by working as a nurse, Birmingham Crown Court was told this week.

She was arrested last year as she attempted to acquire a new passport. She has pleaded guilty to engaging in conduct in preparation for terrorist acts by attempting to travel to war-torn Syria between June 1 and July 31 last year. Samra, however, denied intending to carry out acts of violence.

“I want to go, Inshallah (God willing) if it’s still possible. At least our nurses can help soldiers and stuff, I really want to go,” she said in one of her online messages.

Samra applied for her first passport in September 2015 but it was handed to the police by her father a month later after teachers became concerned and reported. She then applied again in June last year before she was arrested and had her phones seized, which revealed plans to travel to Syria.

“We can see the people with whom Miss Samra was communicating – we appear to have six respondents in 2015 and six in 2017,” Prosecutor Sarah Whitehouse told the court, adding that Samra also discussed marriage with multiple extremists.

The prosecution alleged that her social media messages showed that she was “going for death” and intended to die for ISIS.

Samra is facing a court hearing to decide whether she also intended to commit terrorist acts herself. — PTI